Week 13, 11/16 - The Digital Enclosure: Surveillance & Control
In the beginning of the article "Nothing Comes Between Me and My CPU: Smart Clothes and 'Ubiquitous' Computing," Andrejevic purports that interactivity is slowly requiring less activity on the part of the users and more activity is being put on the part of smart (portable) objects, such as smart phones. ,,m
(scanning something onto a phone instead of taking the time to look for the information by hand)
Instead of the user being invited to interact themselves, they are being invited to immerse themselves in a world in which technology does the work of interacting on their behalf. This switch in the act of interacting has the potential to led to passive interaction, which is the gathering of detailed information in an increasingly unobtrusive (on the surface) manner.
The Bourgeois Interior and the Digital Enclosure
Technologically enhanced interiority is closely associated to second-wave computing: the ability of personal computers to bring the world into the privacy of people's homes.
In this section of the article, Andrejevic compares digital enclosure to the 19th century concept of bourgeois interiority. Bourgeois interiority, in relation to the 19th century, figured as a site of refuge for privileged individuals from the increasingly anonymous and alienated world and urban industrial capitalism.
The interior space was the space within where individuals could make some sort of an impression, a place in which they could distinguish the traces they made upon their surroundings from other influences. It was also thought to provide an escape from objectification and offer a form of freedom, however false, that was envisioned to occur in such an escape.
Smart clothes and ubiquitous computing offers to make the outside world reflective of the concepts of the individual subject--mass customized marketing. In other words, smart clothes and ubiquitous computing offers individuals a way to ascertain the impressions, impacts, and influences they have in their life and (possibly) their surrounding environment. Digital customization offers a space that serves as a refuge and as an illusory site of subjective control.
The Digital Arcade
Digital arcade anticipates the fantasy of a third wave computing: the transformation of the physical world into a customizable interior with the ability to recognize the wired users moving through its electro-magnetic ether (108).
Arcades enlist the appeal of the bourgeois interior as a commercial strategy for transforming the streets into sites for consumption and commodification----inverting the space of the streets into the interior of a building (i.e. - malls, DSU)
Digital enclosure provides the service of commerce based on the inclusion of the object world to the universal medium of information exchange Digital enclosure is a virtual enclosure that authorizes not just the universalization of the space of consumption but a technology for making this space increasingly productive through the ongoing production of information commodities about consumer behavior.
The development of smart clothes and smart objects is an economic one designed to facilitate the rationalization of both consumption and production. They promise not just efficiency and customization, but also the perfection of market research.
Ubiquitous computing will seemingly be able to delegate the grunt work of daily life, including remembering faces and conversations, to smart objects. As a result, it has the possibility:
of objects taking on an uncanny alertness, increasingly supplanting the active role from the humans they supposedly serve,
of the digital devices we rely upon becoming hyperactive, and
of RFID (radio frequency ID) technologies to promise to re-individualize mass-produced products so that each one becomes uniquely identifiable--purchased items can be traced after purchase, consumers garner a sense of recognition and indiviualization
Smart clothes revive, in digital form, the promise of the bourgeois interior as a space that provides the illusion of individuality while protecting its inhabitants from the shocks of modern life. Smart clothes allow individuals to feel as if they are their own individuals and that they make and come to their own decisions, without being influenced by outside sources (society).
The Digital Flâneur
Andrejevic states that "smart clothes promise to serve as the mobile cockpit for the futuristic flâneur, storing detailed records not just of the user's movements, but of preferences, encounters, purchases and even vital signs. Smart clothing, thanks in part to its proximity, will not only feed off of the energy generated by the body, it will transform this energy into information" (112). Smart clothes, then, essentially operate in similar ways that the QSensor that Reid Hoffman was wearing as mentioned in the beginning of Gold's "The Leaking Nature of Online Privacy," essentially amounting to privacy becoming nonexistent.
Smart clothes are purported to have the ability to gauge consumer response to advertisements based on their physiological responses (neuromarketing). While smart clothes are devices that allow the consumer to participate in a sort of bourgeois interiority and they look after and do the bidding of the consumer, they also do the bidding of the various manufacturers and marketers. In this sense, smart clothes are also the realization of what Benjamin saw as the commodity phantasmagoria: where the commodity comes to life and presents itself for those consumers with disposable income, transforming itself from a digital secretary into a digital overseer (114).
Conclusion: An Uncanny Fetishism
The whole article seems to assert the fact that with the invention and employment of devices such as smart clothes and ubiquitous computing, that the individual consumer will be able to make their sense of bourgeois interiority portable. While the portability of such an idea is admirable, the consequences of such a thing is never obtaining a break from marketing and advertising. Andrejevic says that "a world in which our clothes tell us where to go and what kind of shoes to wear, in which our necktie keeps track of whom we've met, [surrenders] a [confounding] autonomy to the objects that populate our world" (116). The autonomy that was once believed to belong to the consumers transfers onto the objects as a result of such kind of advanced technology.
Week 12, 11/9: Immaterial Labor
The word labor itself means work that is done with the intention of getting money in return, which is also seen as a form of exploitation, because something ($$$) is gained as a result of someone else's labor.
Material Labor:
Producing a material product (a physical object that can be utilized) through one's own labor.
We talked in class about some controversial types of labor as far as material or imaterial. One that we came up with was an escort service. Although nothing tangible is produced from this line of work we discussed how it could be classified as both material and imaterial.
Immaterial Labor:
Defined by Maurizio Lazzarato as ‘the labour that produces the informational and cultural content of the commodity’ (Lazzarato, 1996:133), demands that the worker put his or her own life experience, communicative competency, and sense of self into the job. In other words its not tangible, produces something of value, but not something you can physically touch
Involves a series of activities that are not normally recognized as "work":
Cultural and artistic standards, fashions, tastes, consumer norms, and, more strategically, public opinion
Tend to work in advertising, fashion, marketing, television, cybernetics, and so forth, satisfy a demand by the consumer and at the same time establish that demand. (M. Lazzarato). They are the most prominent areas of work because workers attempt to make the audiences relate to their products through particular effects (especially through advertisement).
It can be used in terms of affect (valued creation and relating to emotion), happiness/companionship, information and cultural content of the commodity, and in some cases for convenience. In certain fields, these terms are related to their jobs because it is his or her job to make the customer/audience comfortable, relaxed and special. Jobs such as waiters/waitresses, bartenders, comedians, coaching a team as a volunteer, child care, hot lines, etc.
Reputation:
An extremely fluid, contingent, and precarious personal attribute generated entirely by the perception, attention and approval of others.
Critic John Rodden argues that building a reputation involves an on-going process of ‘image-making’ and perception management, and, as such, is never given once and for all (Rodden, 2006:75). Acquiring a reputation takes very little skill or accomplishment, but is to be derived solely from the performance of effective attention-getting itself.
A ‘reputation’ is conditioned and, arguably, constituted by cultural and economic institutions that have the power to authorize and direct attention, and transmute that attention back into value. In other words, reputation is a cultural product, and, as such is conditioned by its mode of production. This mode of production is generally marked by the perennially exploitative relations between labour and capital as well as by other relations of power based on forms of identity such as race, sexuality and gender.
Digital Reputation:
The aspect of digital technology that is concerned with the mediation of people's experience of their own identity and the identity of other people and things. The attitude of what’s being said and how it effects you.
Social media like Twitter or Facebook provide a new ‘protocol’ for social relations; they allow individuals’ personal connections to become more durable, representable, ever-expandable, and, most importantly, they render public their affective qualities (Arvidsson and Peitersen, 2009: 17). What used to be private or “intimate” information is now viewable through the eyes of the public and so is the method of evaluating the overall social worth of a person or organization: relationships a person has, who he or she is friends with, connections, quality and conduct.
Positive and negative valiance
Brand value of someone’s social worth
Social relations a way of creating capital, creating a social self (knowing people)
On Tuesday Oct 20, 2009 former Bengal's WR, Chad Ochocinco released his very own iphone app dedicated completely to himself and the Bengal's organization. Ochocinco fans can follow his daily exploits in photos, videos and tweets. They can ask his advice on dating or anything else, send their own photos for posting, and track where he is each day when he's on the road. In his own words,"All Ochocinco, all the time...If you can't fly here to chill with me you can with this app," in which he informed fans on twitter post. According to Cincinnati's back-up QB, Jordan Palmer (one of the creators of the app), "It's going to parallel what Chad does on the field...the app is a glimpse into his life. It's got a little bit of everything." There are sound bites in English and Spanish; a "What Would Ochocinco Do?" section; a place to post fan pictures; videos; a "Where's Ocho?" section that tracks his travels; a place for news and more. Ochocinco was an excellent choice for an app because he was the Bengals most high-profile player, having changed his name from Johnson to Ochocinco, and his innovative touchdown celebrations have drawn both attention and NFL fines (Notice that this video was released in Feb).
Self-Branding:
Hearn asserts that self-branding may be considered a form of affective, immaterial labour that is purposefully undertaken by individuals in order to garner attention, reputation and potentially, profit (2010, p. 427). Self-branding is a way for individuals to create a reputation for themselves, which can be achieved through a presentation of the self using tattoos, clothing, accessories, etc. According to Hearn businesses are no longer concerned with simply fixing a logo to a product, but rather, branding practices increasingly attempt to establish virtual contexts for consumption: experiences, spaces, and relationships are all branded. Owning a certain brand can help consumers to express and build their own self-concept, then only purchase certain trademarks when he or she finds a match between the brand image. The matching process between self-concept and image of the brand and product also directs how consumers judge the brand and product. When a brand has a positive brand-image, it means that the brand has established a strong, positive and distinct association with the consumer’s self-image. For example, an IPod has a strong and explicit image of trendy, fashionable and high-tech, this combination of brand image is unique and valued by young people, so if he or she perceives themselves as a trendy youngster who values advanced technology, the chance that he or she will buy it is very high. Alternatively, consumers may see an increased recognition in certain brands and will buy them in order to be accepted: clothes, shoes, hats, purses, etc. Through self-branding consumers achieve certain goals: what they might become or what they would like to become. By creating your own reputation, you are able to promote yourself [positively however you want].
In this video, personal branding and why it matters
In this video they see the athletes of tomorrow as the new "PROTOTYPE", in others words if you are an athlete and consider yourself one of the next generations rising stars, you should by this product in order to be apart of it.
Call of Duty is one of the most recognizable brands in all of gaming, in this latest installment, Modern Warfare 3, in provides the notion that there is a soldier in all of us and that one can achieve this goal by buying and playing this game
In some situations someone may not be able to create their own brand but instead may be influenced by someone else. A brand can be given to someone by someone like their family or friends. One example of getting a brand by someone else is the movie Roll Tide/War Eagle on ESPN. In this movie there is a man who is a die hard Alabama fan. He talks about naming his children after major Alabama figures. His first son was named Bear Bryant after Alabama's most know coach. He later named his daughter Allie Bama which is pretty self explanitory. I found this to be a good example of how branding can influence your life from the day you are born.
Brand valuation:
Brand valuation the process of quantifying something that isn't quantifiable: turning quality information into quantity information, such as the reputation of a corporation. In other words - adding or creating brand value. It is crucial in effective brand management; this process enables marketers to obtain a more accurate idea about how powerful a brand name is and will help marketers decide what their future marketing strategy would be. These designs, terms or symbols are considered as ownership labels, which allows consumers to distinguish a product or service from all the others. Legal protection is also provided to a particular brand name in order to prevent competitors from capitalizing on them. Free labor is used to evaluate brand reputation. A brand's reputation is measured through relationships (the number of times it is talked about), the number of times the brand/product is purchased, and the number of times it is seen and/or heard about. A brand's reputation is turned into a physical dollar sign (reputation = $$$).
Knowledge Brokers:
Knowledge brokers, also known as innomediaries, assess the evaluation of a brand; they collect information about a product or service in order to give feedback to corporations and other third parties. There are different types of knowledge brokers, three being listening platforms, sentiment analysis, and reputation management. Listening platforms (Sysomos, Radian6, Bazaarvoice) troll the web in order to offer real time intelligence about the reputation of their clients' product, brand, or service. Sentiment Analysis (Radian6) looks at the linguistics, or the terms used in association with their clients' product, brand, or service, and parses them into positive or negative valence, or the positive or negative view that's attributed to an image (how people feel about the image). Sentiment analysis also has the ability to intervene in real time in order to better a company's reputation. Reputation management offers guidance on the best way for a company to intervene in and manage conversations and opinions being expressed online, such as participating in chat room conversations in order to identify brand fans among already existing consumers and putting them to work, for free, in order to enhance the company's brand. The objective is to make money and a career out of exploiting prosumers' information through pre-established participatory culture. Their goal is to figure out what a brand means to you, and using that data in order to create brand loyalty. In addition to these three types of knowledge brokers, there are also online services that take a more direct involvement in constructing and managing one's reputation online.
This video gives a synopsis about different (paid) online services that will assess an individual's or corporation's online reputation and provide a service that will control and manipulate information about a client in order to create a positive reputation for them.
Broughton - Social Media Use Builds Fan Avidity:
Sports fan are connecting with the leagues through social-media sites, and as a result they are considered to be more enthusiastic fans of the leagues now than they were prior to the advent of such sites, according to a survey recently conducted by Catalyst Public Relations in conjunction with SportsBusiness Journal. The use of social media in sports helps keeps fans connected to his or her respective team through: team fan pages, facebook, twitter, mobile devices and so on. In fact, social media has even gained new fans that were not originally fans of the sport through fantasy football; an interactive, virtual competition in which people manage professional football players versus one another and that allows people to act as general managers of [virtual] football team. The players that an individual is able to manage are professional players in the NFL. The different actions people are able to make are: drafting, trading, adding/dropping players, and changing rosters.
More and more sports teams are hiring directors of social media, and those individuals will be charged with "integrating social media into the team's broadcasts, in-stadium media and marketing efforts" (Broughton, 2010, p.3). Doing this will allow sports teams to engage in knowledge brokerage and brand evaluation. Because of the increase of Fantasy Football many other companies have used this to their advantage. For example DirecTV has a program where you can download your fantasy team and see how they are doing every sunday for a small fee.
Belsen & Arango - Leagues See Bloggers...:
This article covers how fans are illegally uploading photos and videos from collegiate and professional games and adding them to their personal site. Normally these industries would not have a problem with uploading their pictures or videos, however once they add them to personal sites to make a profit, then they have a problem and try to shut them down. One reason why these industries want to stop individuals from uploading pictures or videos and making a profit, is because it is undermining the industry for when they want to market video of a game and file footage to their fans in the fall. By fans posting pictures and videos of the game, they are taking away from the SEC, the Big Ten, and other collegiate conferences' self-branding process. Their trying to put a stop to fans profiting from pictures and videos of games is their way (their being the SEC, the Big Ten, and other collegiate conferences) of enforcing reputation management.
Conclusion:
"The reputation we generate is simply a reputation for building the reputation of others, resulting in a seemingly endless circuit of exchange without foundation" (Hearn, 2010, p.435).
Material Labor- Producing a material product through one's own labor
Immaterial Labor-produces something of value, but not something you can physically touch
Reputation-fluid, contingent, and precarious personal attribute generated entirely by the perception
Self-Branding-attempt to establish virtual contexts for consumption
Brand Evaluation-designs, terms or symbols that are considered as ownership labels
Knowledge Brokers-interact produce opinion online any and entity takes info and sell to 3rd party
Broughton - Social Media Use Builds Fan Avidity- increase in sports fans do to social media sites
Belsen & Arango - Leagues See Bloggers- illegal use of uploading photos and videos for profit Week 11, 11/2: Privacy
"In exchange for giving up some of our privacy, we acquire more reliable information about one another" (Gold).
One question that comes to mind is how can openness be valued?
What are the positives and negatives connected to less privacy settings?
Pros.
Cons.
When more information is given out by consumers on social network sites there is more opportunity to you get stuff back through points and other programs at restaurants and stores. (Dollar off of a coffee for taking a survey at Starbucks)
The new technology and less privacy could prove to be an efficient process of figuring out whether people are telling the truth in serious situations.
Interrogating criminals to understand if they are telling the truth would become much simpler and clear.
Efficiency can come from the idea of sister sites. An example of a lack of privacy but an efficient system could be when a user goes to a new social network site and all of their information is already there from previous sites it would save a lot of time.
The new age mirror device can be very good because it can show us health conditions and other things aspects of our lives that need maintenance that a doctor may not know from just looking at a person’s face.
Social convergence- made communication more efficient all of our friends and groups are put into the same place
Geolocation technology brings about how people can view other people’s houses online without leaving their computer.
Lack of privacy brings a lack of control.
87% accuracy levels were displayed when looking up peoples identities using only their birth date, sex, and zip code.
Control is dangerous, webpage control can be leaky. When people think they are in control they aren’t even though it seems like it the privacy settings can act more as a safety blanket but not as safe as it is made out to be.
Prosumer comodification- data about the user has become a commodity to be used by the company to exploit.
Exploiting user data for target marketing (could be false information or could be targeted in the wrong direction due to a wrong judgment of data. (The girl who was being advertised to for baby stuff when her friend was pregnant not her.)
The new mirror device could also be bad because the info then can be transferred over the internet and could possibly be used against a person for insurance and other exploited purposes.
This YouTube video is about a smart toothbrush and mirror created by students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The smart toothbrush and mirror empowers people to brush their teeth better. By creating this system, companies can benefit from the studies shown and try and make toothpaste or toothbrushes better. Companies can also create advertisements and gather the data from the smart toothbrush and mirror to show what needs improvement with the way people brush their teeth. However, what happens when that data gets sent out, to say for example your dentist, and you do not want them to know? They can constantly see the health condition of your teeth and see if you are brushing your teeth properly or not.
Kevin Gold
1) According to Gold, the software uses statistics gleaned from large data sets about how often friends tend to have characteristics in common when they are a part of a community and how often they might simply share characteristics by chance; then it combines several such probabilities into a statistically motivated guess as to whether a person belongs to a particular community. So it's not actually possible to participate in social networks without revealing anything about yourself; you reveal your interests by association. I think that it is possible to have some sort of control over privacy on SNS's; however, if any information is given out on your page and the person doesn't restrict the friends that they have on the site then they lose the privacy rapidly. A person that opts out of any affiliation with SNS's has the best chance at staying private however anyone one of their friends has the ability to upload a picture of them or mention them in a post which can rapidly take away from that persons privacy.
2) By taking privacy away from people that depletes the ability to fake an identity. As seen in the film Catfish, false identities are very simple as long as a person does not have to back up their identity in real life. If someone is only seen on SNS's and withholds the optimal privacy settings they can be whoever they want to be. If a person had to look into new age pattern recognition software to confirm their identity before using the site it would be much tougher to falsify an identity.
3) Pattern recognition software are programs that take in data and sort them into different categories so that many different tasks are completed efficiently. This undermines privacy because when these programs take in information and group it together about a person that person is not necessarily giving permission for them to do so. The information received and grouped by these programs can then be used to target advertise to these people and allows companies to exploit people's ideas for free.
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Christian Fuchs
1) The change of Facebook's privacy policies has come shortly after members of the initiative �Europe versus Facebook� filed privacy violation complaints against Facebook to the Irish Data Protection Commissioner. The length and complexity of Facebook's privacy policy has increased. Facebook has introduced new features like instant personalization that have increased the non-transparency of data storage. It is not clear for a user, which data Facebook stores about her/him, with whom Facebook shares user data, and which data exactly Facebook partners store. Facebook continues to receive data about users from other websites. Facebook continues to commodify user data by using targeted advertising. It does not use opt-in for advertising, targeted ads are automatically and always activated. Internet prosumer commodification continues to be Facebook's capital accumulation model. Facebook has implemented a user participation mechanism in privacy decision-making that is formulated in an extremely shallow way so that this regulation seems to be an ideological pseudo-participation strategy.
2) Fuchs idea of prosumer comodification is about how data about the user has become a commodity to be used by the company to. This means that peoples information on SNS's is being used and exploited for their own corporate gain.
3) �Europe versus Facebook� filed privacy violation complaints against Facebook to the Irish Data Protection Commissioner. The length and complexity of Facebook's privacy policy has increased. Facebook has introduced new features like instant personalization that have increased the non-transparency of data storage. These are the objectives for Europe vs Facebook. http://europe-v-facebook.org/EN/Objectives/objectives.html
4) Targeted advertisement is when a company or person uses information about a person to find out different things about them and then exploit that information and advertise things to that person that they would most likely enjoy. This is different from regular advertisement because in regular advertisement everyone is experiencing the same advertisement where with targeted it is personal and people are more likely to buy things they are interested in.
Danah Boyd
1) The new function of the newsfeed brought everyones personal page business from their page to everyones page. With the new feature people didn't have to view someones page to see what they were doing now people could view one screen and see what everyone of their friends had been doing on Facebook lately.
2) This new feature made exclusion central to privacy on Facebook because anything that was put on there or any action taken by people was at the forefront of the newsfeed. This meant if you wanted things to stay private you just didn't put them up on Facebook.
3) Exclusion is different from inclusion because one deals with bringing information into something (including it) and leaving information out of something (excluding it). On Facebook if you want your information to be private you need to either exclude people from seeing your stuff, which is not as effective as it seems, or you need to exclude it from Facebook all together.
4) Social convergence occurs when disparate social contexts are collapsed into one. Even in public settings, people are accustomed to maintaining discrete social contexts separated by space. How one behaves is typically dependent on the norms in a given social context. How one behaves in a pub differs from how one behaves in a family park, even though both are ostensibly public. Social convergence requires people to handle disparate audiences simultaneously without a social script. While social convergence allows information to be spread more efficiently, this is not always what people desire. As with other forms of convergence, control is lost with social convergence. Can we celebrate people's inability to control private information in the same breath as we celebrate mainstream media's inability to control what information is broadcast to us?
5) Privacy is not an inalienable right. It is a privilege that must be protected socially and structurally in order to exist. The question remains as to whether or not privacy is something that society wishes to support.
Progressive commercials about their new SnapShot feature:
According to Progressive, their new SnapShot discount rewards clients with discounts up to 30% more than their current rate for their good driving. The SnapShot discount also includes the number of miles you drive, time of day you drive and how often you make sudden stops. People who drive less, in safer ways and during safer times of day could get a discount. This is similar to the smart toothbrush and mirror where the corporation collects results and sees how you can improve.
Conclusion:
Here are some key concepts discussed in class and from the readings:
Social convergence made communication more efficient all of our friends and groups are put into the same place.
Prosumer comodification- data about the user has become a commodity to be used by the company to exploit.
Exclusion vs. inclusion
Targeted advertisement
Week 10, 10/26: Flashmobs & Social Organization
Flashmobs are spontaneous gatherings which usually only last for a few minutes. People gather in public places and perform some sort of communistic task.
Sometimes explicitly political
Appropriated and planned yet at the same time impromptu and spontaneous
Can be just for fun; however usually has some sort of broad reason or goal (the idea behind them is to make some kind of statement)
Potentially just entertainment
Possibly satire
Artistic expression
Can't predict how others will react to the situation (as seen in the example of the flashmob in Target)
"Let's Unite!" and have a spontaneous moment, that sometimes doesnt make sense.
People feel they have Freedom to do what they want and a need to organize together to be heard.
Bill W. (founder of early flashmobs in NYC) feels they are for "poking fun of everyone for being such a herd."
The following link portrays a group flash mob at the public place of a mall providing shoppers with some holiday cheer to brighten their day.
This next video portrays artistic expression. The participants in this flashmob are portraying their artistic ability which create certain feelings and actions for those around, yet not participating.
Political Flashmob: Target. This video shows how explicit and overtly political a flashmob's message has the potential to be. They have created a song that says exactly what they are disgruntled about and let those around them hear their words.
Capitalism has responded to Flashmobs popularity and used it in their advertising, and using in AT&T and other mobile phone commercials.
Occupy Wall Street (99% vs. 1%)
What are people occupying about?
The 99% is mad because of the power, wealth, and opportunities afforded to the 1%. According to this article, “Occupy Wall Street is a diffuse group of activists that stand against corporate greed, social inequality, and the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process.”
1% of the population owns 46% of the nation’s wealth.
Corporate profits increase while minimum wage is worth less than it was in 1990.
Money, power and connections are linked and the top 1% see increased power
New York Times reports overarching reason for many involved in Occupy Wall Street is to unite
Those occupying argue for more democracy and more equal rights
Want the banks, and more specifically the 1% to be held accountable for their actions
Able to see that economic opportunity and power play a key role in determining who has the wealth in the country (i.e. the 1% or CEO's)
Bank bailouts
CEOs get bonuses and vacations
Those who invested lose retirement funds
Gatekeepers: When Occupy WallStreet first began many people had no clue it was even taking place. The major TV networks were not broadcasting the event. They were ignoring the issue completely. The Big Businesses own the networks/news stations and these gatekeepers control what they broadcast to the public.
SO... Occupy Wall Street is considered a flashmob since their actions take place in a public place, their goal is to balance some of the social inequalities that are burdened upon the less fortunate in our nation, and the type of flashmob is clearly overtly political. They are also an example of a flashmob that has never dispersed. Ironically capitalism responds to the OWS in the form of MTV wanting to do a show surrounding the movement. While the intentions may be good for promoting a cause it is not about politics and centers more on corporate greed because it will become a spectacle that is too commercial. Protesters at OWS are "drawn to the movement by a desire to unite."
However we are able to see that this is indeed a political movement because as a group they are able to organize, they have the freedom to do what they want, and because there is a general goal/purpose behind it.
How does OWS use "stillness" and "mobility" as political practice (or, a threat to capitalism)?
In a literal sense stillness is seen because the participants of the flashmob have been in the city (New York) for over a month, whereas the mobility could be seen in their move to Times Square. On the other hand if you look deeper into what is actually transpiring from the actions of the participants within the flashmob, stillness and mobility could have other meanings. Stillness can be seen as a threatening figure for capitalism according to this article, Risk of Stillness. The author argues that "at the heart of capitalism is a state of permanent mobility, a condition to which polar inertia attests." Ultimately what this is saying is that by staying in the city and continuously protesting they as individuals, and as a group, are not doing anything to promote the capitalistic values our society is centered upon, since they are in a way doing "nothing". Mobility can be seen as a political practice in that "increasingly, everyday living and practices depend on how mobility (and immobility) is articulated through the ever-present influence of a range of physical and virtual infrastructures". Thus, the OWS flashmob and their ability to congregate, mobilize, and move to one place to protest for their rights, beliefs, and values is an example of mobility as political practice.
Flashmob Hysteria
In this article, hundreds of young Black Philadelphians are described taking over a Macy’s in City Center through communicating via text message. Using this form of social media, these young Philadelphians were able to gather remotely and undetectable by outside forces, until their movement was already underway. During this time much of the news surrounding this event made the flashmob’s actions sound racist and violent, however, the author claims this was their attempt to demonstrate their existence, reclaim public space, and resist segregation and social inequalities. This flashmob had an undesired outcome for the participants, which led to a 9 p.m. curfew for youth in the area that was mobbed.
How does social media play a role in flashmobs (in particular the OWS)?
One of the first well known flashmob attempts came from Bill Wasik; it was actually unsuccessful due to a leakage in communication. The event was tipped off to a store owner where the event was to take place, making them unable to have a successful flashmob.
Social media and SNS such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Four Square, and others such as Google+, which can be viewed with this link which displays basic background information. These sites afford people the opportunity to spearhead, participate, as well as to control the flow of information from top to bottom in order to organize an effective, efficient, and successful flashmob. Ultimately, these SNSs put together events by allowing individuals to agree on a time and a place.
Twitter has played an effective role in shaping this movement because of the architectural limitations of characters they can get across. People have had to limit wording and still get message across using Twitter.
SNS like facebook have made it possible for a quantitative number to be measured. Such as how many people following, protesting, for/against, etc.
Other forms of communication such as text messaging, cell phone calls, emails, and instant messaging allow similar communication and information flow to take place.
These devices and programs allow these events to be organized in order to gain some sort of goal, achieve a notion, or spread word about specific hardships.
The usage of certain media tools help to build networks of people that have the ability and power to evoke change, spread word, and enact revolution.
SNSs allow a certain sense of publicity (transparency) in which others can become involved. This in turn is able to then help narrow the focus of the message about what the cause is for the flashmob itself.
Simplicity of message(s) via SNSs allows people to get engaged.
SNSs help quantify the support to know what they are up against.
Social media did not cause OWS, but it affords people the ability to mobilize people quickly to support a certain cause.
Most importantly getting the desired message across!
Hackathons: Making Apps. for the purpose to Occupy Wallstreet. Such as Shouty App.
Social Media did not cause OWS but social media affords people to mobilize more quickly. Every night they general assemble in the park. They go over goals, make general requests, and make plans for mobilization. They use hand signals to vote YAY or NAY. They are forbidden by the city to use microphones or amplification technology.
Protestors have created the peoples microphone. This is a human amplification system. "We amplify each other's voices so we can hear one another."
They are usings apps like Shouty to broadcast the general assembly to others further away through their phones in live time!
Institutions Fight Against Flashmobs
As flashmobs have the potential to be dangerous and even illegal (such as organized looting or robbery), institutions such as the government feel the right to fight back. In this article on the crackdown of flashmobs and social riots, some drastic measures have been pondered.
The article mentions several flashmob instances:
Looting and civil unrest around London used BlackBerry messages to organize a mob
This caused British Prime Minister David Cameron to suggest all those suspected of using social media for criminal activity to be banned from said service.
A violent flashmob disrupted a Fourth of July fireworks celebration
The Cleveland City Council passed an ordinance that would make it illegal to use social media in order to communicate and organize a violent and disorderly flash mob, however, it was later vetoed.
In an attempt to protest police shooting of a man holding a knife, a large demonstration was held atop a subway platform
This caused the Bay Area Rapid Transit District to shut down cellphone service at the station.
*These issues all seem to encroach on our (the people's) right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, which enable us the ability to speak our minds, protest, assemble, so that word can spread and hopefully some sort of action to take place that could overthrow a certain order or recurring action that is constant in our status quo. If these freedoms were not present and part of our lives, corrupt and powerful forces at the top could create quite undesirable circumstances for those underneath. Having the ability to construct a flashmob affords people the opportunity to have their voice heard and even to enact measurable change.
While some leaders, government agencies, or whatever overarching institution may be against social media's ability to communicate and direct organization, author Christian Christensen, in a blog post titled Iran: networked dissent, delves into the issues surrounding Ahmadinejad as well the protests that followed. When the government disrupted cell phone usage and text messaging capabilities, social media became an increasingly important platform to share information for those involved, as well as to share to those who want to know the news, which could develop more participants whatever movement. Author Christensen writes, "Enter Twitter and Facebook, which rapidly became vital tools to relay news and information on anti-government protests to people inside and outside Iran." He goes on to say that these social media tools portray the ability to potentially fight oppression and conflict on a large scale. Stories like this one truly show the capability and importance of the social media tools and networking advantages that our generation has over previous ones.
To view the Course Prezi on Mobility & Virtual Networks go HERE
A summary of: Humphreys, L. (2008). Mobile social networks and social practice: A case study of Dodgeball. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13, 341-360.
Through twenty-one in-depth interviews on the use of Dodgeball, a mobile social network system (MSNS), the article reports on the social and behavioral norms associated with its use while also serving as an introductory article on the MSN. By combining the theories of “third places” with “mediaspaces,” the author offers five emerging themes to describe Dodgeball users and the service’s use that highlight the communicative differences between online social networking usage (SNSs) and offline MSN usage.
Themes of use show that the service has functional, performative, and social cataloging purposes. Its functional purpose offers a highly local component that serves immediate and proximate connections comprised of a “loose” social network rather than a way of keeping in touch with far away friends. The system takes less work and interpersonal communication to facilitate or coordinate gathers, therefore leaving the user and others open to more opportunities for social interaction. However, its usage can also serve a performative function, meaning ‘shouts’ may sometimes be about showing off or self-branding. Cataloging one’s life is a third function that serves as a digital social diary or mapping of one’s social life. Key to the author’s main point, however, is that the service creates “social molecularization” via collectivized momentum - i.e., collective social movement within and across urban spaces. Meaning, while the use of MSNS impacts collective social movement through urban environments to create “third spaces,” thus demonstrating that technology impacts social movement through space. This type of "sociality" (i.e., socializing / social relations) typically maintains relatively homogenous communities (in terms of group demographics). This is different from the notion of "third places" which are typically characterized by their "diverse" nature (as they're often random meeting places for acquaintances in urban communities - see below). Ultimately, Dodgeball’s use by early adopters ties social networks to physical offline spaces that can ‘strengthen, modify and rearrange how urban public spaces and social connections are experienced” (p. 344). Future research should consider how mobile services that offer social-location information may impact or contribute to social collective movement through space; future research might also investigate ‘discontinued use’ of MSNSs, as well as “the ways in which people adopt and integrate these kinds of systems into their everyday lives.” (p. 357).
Humphrey's main point revolves around the role that MSNs play in the creation of a "third space" which she theorizes as what emerges through the combination of third places and mediaspaces. By third places Humphreys refers to as public places that host regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work (hence, a "third place"). These are neutral spaces where people generally feel equal to one another. Conversation is the main activity, there's no required pre-planning; these spaces are central to an individual's sense of community. For example, in the TV program Cheers, the bar is considered a "third place" (where everybody knows your name...)
In the above clip, a bunch of (seemingly) diverse individuals are sitting around talking, they're all "regulars" and know they can gather in this neutral third place (not home, not work) where they can be themselves in an informal environment. The beauty of third places are the random conversations and unexpected moments of closeness that can emerge from spontaneous acts within the third place like the above clip.
In this clip from Good Will Hunting, the bar also becomes a third place where conversation is central amongst friends:
For Humphreys, the term "third places" doesn't account for how technology/media are used in these places to organize individuals who meet there, or how media/technology are used in these spaces in a way that fundamentally alters the social relations within the space. To account for the role of media and technology in the social formation of space and place Humphreys draws from the theory of mediaspace. Mediaspace is defined as "the mutual connection, dependence, and constitution of communication technology and space" (p. 2). In simplicity, mediaspace is the electronic settings of working together regardless of a place or time. It is also understood as a physical component that is bridged with a virtual space. In order to understand the role that MSNs like Dodgeball have in the construction of space, she explores the notion of urban social space with mediaspace theory to explore how tying social networks to physical locations can strengthen, modify, and rearrange how urban public spaces and social connections are experienced. The sharing of social information through MSNS should be able to transform users' experiences of the public spaces they inhabit. Thus Dodgeball might be able to facilitate the production of meaningful gathering spaces, like third places, within a modern urban landscape. Mediaspace theory thus argues that media use is tied to spatial practices, both social and physical; media also “links” separate spaces/places and in doing so, it can help TRANSCEND physical place/space.
Which leads us to....
How Dodgeball (or MSNs) create "third spaces"
Public space + third place = third space
Third spaces, as defined by Humphrey, are spaces made up by confined interactions among a narrow group of people within a potentially diverse locational space. Third spaces are constantly moving and changing, they are fluid; creates a sense of community. These are different from third places, then, because it is no longer a diverse group of people frequenting a single place (like Cheers) but a narrow group (i.e., homogenous) that is constantly moving to diverse spaces. MSNs like Dodgeball through the use of "check-ins" or "shouts" facilitate this fluidity - the constant movement from place-to-place. This is fundamentally different than third places which are static (just think back to all the people sitting in the same old chairs in Cheers. Those people aren't meeting one another anywhere else except for Cheers! They don't check their cellphones, see where Sam Malone is chillin and go visit him and then do that several times over in a given night or over a week - they go to Cheers and Cheers alone).
In summary, sharing social info thru MSNs can transform our experience of public space. This activity can also help create new ‘third places’ and meaningful offline relationships. So MSNs can help create a third space (not third place)
a. Unlike third places, it’s not just one single meeting place but fluid, always changing location
b. Much more fluid & dynamic (where & who)
c. Demographically similar / homogenous (whereas third places = diverse) because it facilitates coordination among groups of non-close friends (e.g., loose social networks), so that various places can become congregative third spaces. It's not the same-old, same-old hangout. So unlike third places, space is managed not by a single walled “space” (e.g, Cheers; or your favorite Starbucks) but is a location that's always changing
d. It REQUIRES use of media/technology (hence, mediaspace)
The outcome? It can make city feel smaller; closer; less anonymous.
Social molecularization:MSNs encourage socialization in the form of "social molecularization," meaning informants both experience and move about through the city in a collective manner.
Users and “informants” can utilize and experience moving about through a geographical area collectively instead as individually. Social molecularization promotes uniform movement
individually and collectively. The idea is that people will move around and use [Dodgeball] as a way to communicate space and their whereabouts. In other words, people experience space more socially through the use of MSNs. Social molecularization allows for:
o indirect communication or notification about public places (can notify of location w/o directly inviting people)
o exchange of social and locational information is accelerated, because occurs in real time;
o allows users to make decisions about their physical movements based on the social and spatial information available to them.
This term is relevant to Dodgeball because social molecularization allows users to communicate indirectly about public places instead of discussing them explicitly (Humphreys) Basically
friends do not have to tell a friend what bar or restaurant they are at, they can simply “indirectly” let them know by checking into that venue, and then everyone else will soon follow.
What are the results?
- indirect communication opens groups of people to new places in the city to congregate
- impacts movement thru space / change the way you move thru a city
- "Collective momentum:” where check-ins inspire other check-ins
- Social pressure to congregate / move rather than stay in a single place
- Dodgeball contributes to a collective experience based on movement
- becomes another means of using technology in maintaining and reinforcing social bonds
An example from the film Step Up 2 shows how simple text messages organize an existing group of friends ("narrow group", despite their racially diverse make-up) into a 'third space." This process of moving together at the same time exemplifies "collective momentum" (inspired by text messages, of course, not check-ins).
Thus, MSNs enables public spaces to facilitate social cohesion amongst networks. In contrast to place-based acquaintanceships, third spaces allow for habitual, dynamic, and technologically-enabled face-to-face interaction among loosely tied groups of friends.
Week 7 10/5
Identity, Performance and Virtual Geographies
A question that begs to be answered today in a society dominated by technology. As the weeks progress, we have become more in tune with the idea that social media is continually playing a fundamental role in our lives; affecting our perceptions, ideas, values and beliefs.
Social Media 2011 facts in less than 3 minutes
Social Media is increasing at an exponential rate and we as "compulsive internet users" never really grasp the extent at which this is happening. This video highlights how fast social media is increasing in popularity and the dramatic effects it has had worldwide. Papacharissi states that social media is "socially shaped and shaping socially" which reinforces the key idea that we are collectively bringing together information to greater our understanding (Papacharissi p.216).
Preliminary Lecture Discussion- Continuation of Last week (Papacharissi)
Class Opinions + Examples
Online discussion forums vs. Facebook- talking to people you don’t know, is more acceptable on discussion forums where the purpose is to discuss an issue or idea rather than being friends or communicating with people you have never met before e.g. random adds
Facebook and myspace comparisons- Myspace having an advanced search criteria used to find friends or potential friends, in turn more prone to getting random adds
Success with online dating sites- easier route for people that are introverts and more shy, it has opened up new channels and opportunities for some people. There is more security on who people say they are compared to social networking sites. The general culture of dating sites is seen as having more truthful participants, open characteristics which is due to a older populous. This ties into peep article and the illusion of privacy covered in previous lectures.
The transition of Match.com- It started with 50+ year olds and an older generation but now the leading cause of use is convenience rather than age. Participants now include business professionals and those looking for something serious but are under time constraints for socializing.
Example of OkCupid.com- Targeted audience is for younger people.
Bottom Line- Every dating site is targeted towards different age groups and demographics, but the reasons on who migrates to what website and why is the important determinant. We also relate peoples decisions to what time in their life it is and what they wish their identity to be?
Dating Site users versus college students- the stigma of people being single at college in such a social atmosphere versus working people who are more limited to meeting people and have to use alternative routes in order to make connections
From the Social Media Literacy Group Projects, we can take away the variances between the pages under scope. Whether it is an online dating site, social networking site or discussion forum site we can see that each page has a particular audience they are targeting. The particular audience is drawn into the site by not only the culture but by the set up of it's virtual geographies and what it has to offer. The strongest example is LinkedIn which ties into the business world of networking and making connections. The architecture and layout of the page is more professional and offers a way to present yourself online as someone who is serious, committed to being successful and driven to make it in the business world. We must also take away the ever changing nature of the cultures sites that impact a site to change it's features and virtual geographies that are tailored to the user.
Here is an academic article on the characteristics of online dating users. They conducted an extensive study of 367 single dutch people aged between 18 and 60 years of age. A comprehensive survey was completed and some interesting results were found. This study was used for the official statistics in the Netherlands.
There are three videos on YouTube of Papacharissi speaking about "New Media" found here.
Social Network Sites (SNS) Summary What do we know about SNSs?
articulating your social ties, who you are connected with sends a message to others on how they will perceive you
ran through a quick recap of the last few weeks
the allusion of security within the social networking site, especially within dating sites
the allusion of control within the social networking site
dating sites allow people to better utilize time, and is moving into main stream due to the lack of time within the business world
SNS are a means of signally identity - shown through the examples in Catfish
friends lists
photos
likes/interests (bands, food, movies, books)
language being used
Social Networking Sites allow individuals to create a virtual identity that can be in allignment to the physical world, or the complete opposite through the anonymity of social media sites. Your identity in the world reflects on who you are, what types of people you surround yourself with, your interests, hobbies, political views etc. which can all be found on your personal information. Although social networking sites indicate by their name a means for networking with others and creating contacts, they are far more than that. Understanding individuals can be far more effective online versus offline whereby their personality characteristics are present along with their physical features via photos. Here is an interesting academic article that delves deeper into why the identity of different social networking sites are impacted by: culture, age, gender, race and ethnicity.
How are photo galleries used as an instrument of self-presentation on Facebook (FB)? (Papacharissi, 2010)
quality of photos
which photos you chose to tag/untag
the new "cover photo" allows friends to know about the person even before looking at the "info section"
the "college rituals" or the "pre-college rituals" (tailgates and parties, or prom and homecoming)
the "in relationship" shift, where all the photos go to the two people
a lack of landscape photos, always focused on people, leaving no context for the scenario
photos relative to the type of social media site, Facebook being more concerned with friends versus business
more concerned with what people look like rather than where they are, focus on individuals, narcism perspective
photos oriented towards socially accepted activities versus those that aren't e.g.studying in the library
photos have been picked exclusively and specifically for purposes of the "in group-out group" idea in which fitting in is the underlying motive behind the selection of certain photos
Every individual will go through the process of asking themselves a few questions before posting a photo:
1-Is this really appropriate?
2-Will my parents see this?
3-Will my coach see this?
4-Do I look cool?
After this process is complete, individuals will either adhere to their answers via the pre-questionaire or just post them anyway. The reasons behind individuals posting photos despite obvious consequences or implications is the image they are trying to portray. Whether the image they are trying to portray is group affiliated oriented or just to send a message to other Facebook users, Papacharissi makes it clear that photos are a source of self presentation. Not only through photos do we see this happening, but in any feature on a social networking site. Individuals who are wearing a certain brand are sending a message that they are within that certain group of people or individuals that change their relationship status to "single and ready to mingle" also send a message. These messages can be subtle, but for the most part are not as they come up on news feeds and on other peoples walls. The point of social media sites is to share information, therefore your identity and self presentation are an inevitable part that will come out through simply having a Facebook or any other profile linked to a social media site; simply due to the nature of SNS's.
Comedic Relief Example: Dr.Kathleen Kuehn cover photo- peace fingers up, taken at the Sundance festival. Sending the message to the wider public that she:
a) Has been to the Sun-dance Festival twice
b) Supports peace, love and happiness to all
c) Is artistic
d) Enjoys independent films
e) Subtly communicates "make love not war"
NOTE: If any of the above statements may impact our grade, they are subject to change at will and more flattering statements will promptly be posted.
How differences are indirectly communicated through the design of the online space ie. Architecture:
Relates back to the Riley article; discussing Web 2.0 differences, has opened up whole new platforms of participatory opportunity
Facebook designed to be highly social and friendship orientated versus LinkedIn which is primarily oriented for business and professionals
Architecture can be viewed as: the physical layout and formatting, the location of things and how the space is used and organized
all architectural decisions are carried through for a specific purpose, e.g. site designers
Features and options available are thoughtfully constructed, purposeful, communicative and shape movement through space
Example 1: Layout of Classroom is designed for attention to be directed towards the front with a semi-circular designed room, chairs facing forward, no pictures or designs on walls, dull atmosphere, sound proof walls and windows that are in the back and covered by blinds
Example 2: The David Student Union (DSU) has a Jeffersonian style architecture similar to what you would find at UVA. To help reconcile the President Trible's desire for a symmetrical Tidewater aesthetic and a modern, asymmetrical student center program, the new student union is conceptualized as two separate buildings connected by an interior "Street."
Interesting link on School Designs which covers the meanings and symbolization's behind designs of buildings, interconnected to architecture and the underlying motives of designers. Click here.
What is contemporary architecture? Where is it used?
Architecture is no longer a term used in the physical world, it now has direct linkages to the online virtual world. The way social media sites are presented to consumers is a form of a virtual geography. The features they offer and the way the page is constructed all gel neatly together to enable us to perform certain actions on their site. For example, on Facebook whenever you go onto a individuals page, the "add friend" button screams out to you. At the same token, if the individual is already on your friends list, the "like" button is one you just can't escape. These features that run predominantly throughout the geography of a page are ways that the creators are encouraging users to participate in these features. Furthermore, revisiting MySpace pages also forces you to scroll down a users page to get to their song, either to stop it or get the name of the artist you may be interested in.
Findings:
I. Confluence (the merging) of public and private:
Architecture creates structural boundaries b/w public and private which has behavioral implications
The architecture of space can inhibit and restrict privacy e.g. Bathroom walls are designed for privacy and isolation, opposite of openness and freedom; open versus closed dynamic
Three different ways SNS (Social Networking Sites) spatially communicate public and private (specifically looking at Facebook, Linked In, and ASmallWorld):
Membership Criteria: FB = open, LI = open professional, SW = invited/closed
Access to Private Information and Member Profiles: FB = some user controls, limited, LI = have an established connection, SW = highly limited, someone has to accept you in order to see someone's profile or else you could get punished
User Control over display of info: FB = some control, LI = more control, SW = only to a "known" audience
II. Self-presentation in privately and publicly private spaces
Different modes of self-presentation emerge on each SNS
Facebook = playful, users have freedom to post statuses and write on other people's walls, any info that users share is more social than Linked In
Linked In = users have to present themselves more professionally than on Facebook since employers will be looking at their profile, users can show their resume for employers to look at
ASmallWorld = user profiles are more relaxed/luxurious
What are the ways in which SNSs spatially communicate public versus private?
Membership Criteria
Access to private information and member profiles
User control over display of info
Google+ has been noted from the CEO of Google's social media as "more than just a social networking site, it is real life sharing." Although the site was originally intended for private use by invite only, it has extended its services to the wider public. This transition from public to private is interesting in that Google+ is no longer exclusive but will be placed with the opportunity to become more popular. The new software that Google + implements makes connecting with people more realistic and in turn breaks down those private boundaries and reinforces the notions of an open public sphere.
III. Taste Cultures, Inclusion/Exclusion
Taste cultures are class based
Answering personal information truthfully- open ended versus close ended, whether it is appropriate to reality, is it false advertisement? e.g. Catfish
Forced to adapt to what the site offers you
tailoring your choices to the type of social media site is is e.g. pre-gaming and passed out photos may not be the most appropriate choice on LinkedIn which is purely for business and networking purposes
taste culture is simply a subculture in which your preference is directed towards a particular product or group
IV. Tightness/looseness
“Situational properties” can influence behavior differently in the same social setting across different communities
Tightness and looseness can be seen as the constraints the social media site places on users, whether it be limited options in their profile information or allowing individuals to post and display just about anything. LinkedIn and a SmallWorld use tightness as a way of maintaining the sites state of affairs. Users have limited options in what they can post on their profiles which limits users abilities to cause social mayhem and in turn keeps the sites mentality reputable and introduce a set of norms. Facebook on the other hand allows individuals to write superhero, president or just about anything as their occupation. Individuals can distort their profile information to whatever means they want which brings down the caliber and mentality of the users on the site. Clearly, reporting photos or inappropriate content on Facebook is not enough.
Conclusion
Here are a few key points from the pieces discussed in class. These are by no means everything we discussed however if after reading through the notes you know nothing about the things below, then possibly REREAD!
Technology functions architecturally
Architecture create contain affordances and potentials that enable some uses and behaviors over others
Facebook as the glass house,
Technology is negotiated: It's a dialectic process between technology and humans and it's not determining
It has a dialectical relationship—two things that cannot be separated
References
Papacharissi, Z. (n.d.). The virtual geographies of social networks: a comparative analysis of Facebook, LinkedIn and ASmallWorld . New Media & Society . Retrieved October 20, 2011, from http://nms.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/1-2/199
Week 6 9/28
Social Media and Identity
"Catfish" and Social Identity
This film offers insight into the world of social media. Throughout the film, Facebook is used to connect two people in different parts of the country. The film is a great example of how social networking sites can be a way for users to create identities different from their own. Facebook, along with Youtube gives users ways to perform and expand their identity, and in this case, even multiple identities. There are many different characters throughout the film that use social media sites in different ways. Although the identities created are not always "real", they are more of performing identities.
Nev- uses Facebook to showcase his photography, connect with friends, and create new relationships
Rel- uses Google Maps or a Map app to show the different places they traveled
Angela- uses Facebook to create different identities to make up for her lost youth, imagined self- creating a new self from past versions of yourself
YouTube was also used as a way to find music, Angela also uses this as a way to perform her identity as a "singer".
Facebook is often used as a shield to hide people from who they really are. Social networking has become such a part of our generation, we often don't take the time to meet people in person. Catfish shows us the astonishing reality about what might happen if we leave our desks. It shows us that social networking sites do not reveal everything about a person, the person directly chooses what goes on their profile to portray themselves as how they want to be seen. As a society we have become so desensitized to what we see that a women pretending to be 15 people doesn't seem so harmful. In the case of Catfish; Angela did not do any real harm to Nev and they will each continue to live their separate lives.
On the other hand, pretending to be another person online can be harmful to others. In the ABC Family original movie "Cyberbully" a young girl is bullied on a social networking site by a fake guy who was created by no other than her best friend. It sounds twisted and crazy, but you would have to see the film to truly understand the motives. In short because of all the hateful things stated online this girl tried to kill herself. She might have just tried to kill herself, but people all over the world actually do because of things said on social networking sites.
We live in a transparent society, the erosion of privacy through the means of technology, and because of this whatever you put online is no longer private. Anyone can "look in" on you as described by Niedzviecki in his article on peep culture. Knowing this people do what is called perform identity, put on a show through pictures and statuses, so that viewers see what you want them to see. Pictures are a way of articulating identity, like a social ritual. Mendelson and Papacharissi in their article "Look at Us" explain how showing photos is "highly ritualized." They quote Boerdam & Martinius (1980) “People give a ‘performance’ when they allow themselves to be photographed, in the sense that they make allowance for a public that will ultimately see the photograph.” Identity is not a fixed test, we are all multiple imagined selves. Intersectionality is what creates identity, and Angela used fragments of her past,(i.e. who she wanted to be when she was younger) to create mutliple selves.
In the film "Catfish", Angela performs many identities, terms that Mendelson and Papacharissi refer to in their article "Look at Us" about how Facebook photo albums offer a way for college students to perform certain identities that they want other people to see. Just as college students can manipulate what pictures they are tagged in and what photos of them that their friends can see to form their identity, Angela used photos of different people that caused Nev to believe that he was interacting with all different people with all different looks and interests when, in reality, all of them were Angela. She chose to perform multiple identities that incorporated all of the things that she never got to be. She performed as the people she wished that she could be. This may have been a way of reclaiming her past. For example, she stated that she wanted to be a singer, a professional dancer and an artist. When she was pretending to be her daughter, Megan, she told Nev that "Megan" was a model, a dancer, and a singer. She even sent him songs that she claimed she had recorded herself.
The filmmakers were also performing identity. In the Willett article, "Consumption, Production, and Online Identities", she describes how filmmakers perform their identities through parodies made on YouTube. By putting themselves into the powerful positions of direction and producer, they created a play space so that their identities could unfold. For example, in Catfish, Nev's brother and their close friend decide to include certain instances, like showing how close the two brothers are and that the third friend is always with them. Through this, they are demonstrating closeness, a family relationship, and that they are not hyper masculine. Their expression of friendship occurs through digital media. They also reveal their technological skills and their ability to create films.
In conclusion, the term performing identity suggests that it is not necessarily something that is perhaps real. Identity is not a fixed state-- rather, we are multiple selves and we have imagined selves. Because social media can be anonymous, there are actually imagined selves who are creating things-- cultural products, social relationships, and entertainment-- as people who they totally imagined themselves to be. Think about it...we wouldn't have Catfish without Angela. What could be some of the benefits and drawbacks of people doing things this way?
This video shows how parts of the three men's identities may or may not have been portrayed in the movie because of the multiple roles of relationships between them (brothers, best friends, co-workers)...
Levi-Strauss’s term “bricolage” refers the phenomenon in which young people take pieces of different aspects of society and assimilate them into their own identities. In her article, Willett used that analysis of homepages by Chandler and Roberts-Young as an example, stating that “including, omitting, adapting and arranging these messages, the ‘bricolur’ is also constructing and forming an identity.” Although not polar opposites, “bricolage” is very different from the theory of Intersectionality, which is defined by Adrien Wing as “the notion that identity is multiplicative rather than additive.” Basically, identity is being defined by how all the different parts intersect and interlock rather than one piece place on top of the other. Instead of having one brick wall with many different blocks cemented together, you have one large block with all of the different components mixed in. Another difference between these two theories is that bricolage mostly refers to how one intentionally builds an identity, especially concerning online profiles. Intersecionality focuses more on how to define and make sense of an identity that already exists.
Week 5: 9/21
Social Network Sites Social Network(ing) Sites (SNS) Boyd and Ellison: Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship
This factual article offers a birds-eye-view on social networking sites with a focus on their history. This article is important to read when studying SNS because it is a definitive article that provides the readers with facts and definitions. Popular interest in SNSs comes from the fact that they enable users to make their existing social networks visible they are not designed (primarily) as systems to meet new people. The article expands upon and focuses on previous research of SNSs including:
Evolution of Social Media
For example: Our generation has evolved from AIM to Myspace to Facebook/Twitter. Also, Friendster for older generations. Friendster has evolved from what it was to a gaming site.
Impression management and the way that people use networks to create representations of themselves and the way that links play into this.
The idea of Network vs. Networks. They are two different things.
Bridging online and offline worlds and research on the fact that most SNS tend to reflect and reinforcing existing "offline" networks.
Goes back to the “Growing Up Online” video. They are showcasing “online” as more of a place to hang out vs. a dangerous place filled with predators as seen in Growing Up Online. In doing so, they combat the online paranoia and pose that hanging out online is just like going to the mall to hang out.
Privacy work from a variety of perspectives that explored the impacts and feelings of users in regards to privacy and the effects of SNSs on decreased privacy.
Key technological features consistent but cultures that emerge are varied
Features can regulate/shape behavior in intended or unintended ways which in turn, shape the sites culture
Definition of SNS according to Boyd and Ellison
Web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connections, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. (pg. 211)
Brief History of Social Media
The “fall” of Friendster and “rise” of Myspace
Friendster only allowed people to go four degrees of separation. To circumnavigate this feature, people created fake profiles to be able to connect with other people, in addition to constantly adding random people. The "faksters" (the fake profiles) were banned along with the creation of famous profiles to insure that "faksters" were unable to exist.
This ban by Friendster led to the rise of Myspace. Myspace became an outlet for indie bands.
A new social network site was recently released to the public- Google+
Some rumor that Google+ will take over Facebook (like how Myspace took over Friendster)
Below is a video clip that shows the features of the new Google+ and its possibility of taking over "boring" Facebook.
Below is a video parody of the evolution of social media
Networks vs Networking
Boyd and Ellison imply that these are used differently therefore they are different.
Definition of Networking:
Networking is conversation or interaction between strangers. This includes talking to meet people and initiating conversation with strangers. Networking emphasizes relationship initiation.
Some examples of networking sites are Twitter, Match.com, and Christianmingle.com
Twitter is an example of Networking and not a Network because most people follow strangers, celebrities, and people they do not personally know.
Definition of Network:
Network is talking to friends. The goal of a network is to "articulate" existing social ties.
Networks are described by Boyd and Ellison as: “Virtual reproduction of the offline world” A place for teenagers to “hang out”.
Is online the same as offline?
What are the implications for a "global network society"?
Foursquare, Facebook, Friendster, google +, and Myspace are all examples of networks.
Myspace could also be seen as networking because it has a browse feature unlike Facebook. This feature allows you to connect with strangers.
Characteristics and Distinctions between Networks and Networking
Display of social ties
Facebook-friends, twitter-followers
Profile (way of writing oneself into being)
Structural variations around visibility and access
Identifying relationship types
Commenting/communication exchange
Content sharing
Different types/ communities
Key technological features are fairly consistent, but cultures that emerge around Social Networking Sites are varied
Below is a short video clip on social network(ing) in simplistic terms!
Niedzviecki- Why No One Came to My Party and Other Semi-Transparent Conclusions
What does the author mean by the following quotes? What is the point he's trying to make about Social Networking Sites / social media? Do you agree or disagree?
“Peep is a hybrid phenomenon. It’s a combination of hyper individualist excess, cutthroat self-preservation, longing fro lost community, and our inherited hardwired need to make sense of life through narrative.” p.268
Way of being connected without actually being connected
Not knowing everything is better
we live in a culture in which many people write about or display
It has been popular for a while but it has now become all encompassing.
Hyper individualist excess- narcissistic, belief that everyone wants to know what you’re doing. Making our "self" important.
People are more open online. They are more likely to avoid conflict, confrontation, and obligation (why they did not come to his party).
It is easy because it’s not messy. You are not obligated to anyone. Social media creates distance even when they fill in gaps. Easy to disengage. You don't have to provide any kind of emotional connection.
Explains the popularity of the website postsecret. The person telling the secret is anonymous so they are able to feel release while not having to deal with backlash. Virtual secrets hold less investment.
"Virtual friendship, like exploring someone else's virtual secret, is without consequence" p. 263
People can pretend to be someone else to have a forged connection with others
ABC Family Movie “Cyberbully”- Class example.
A girl created a page acting like a boy her friend liked. She was able to fake an online personality and forge a relationship. The movie page is linked here
"Peep is a hybrid phenomenon. It's combination of hyper-individualist excess, cutthroat capitalist self-preservation, longing for lost community, and our inherited hardwired need to make sense of life through narrative." (Page 268)
The whole reason we do Peep is because we're not living in the small town anymore and don't know everyone
Peep is driven by our constant need to feel connected. We feel as though we need to reconnect with past relationships by friending or following them but really we are living in a false reality (we probably weren't even close to them before). Links to the following video example from class
"Virtual friendship, like exploring someone else's virtual secret, is without consequence" (Page 263)
Example: Post Secret, you can see the page by clicking here
This page allows people to send in post cards with a secret or statement on it. Some are posted online allowing the person to anonymously release their secret.
Used in The All American Rejects Video: "My Dirty Little Secret"
Not messy, no fuss
If you're not sitting in front of the computer, that friendship doesn't exist
“One of those unintended consequences is the rise of the notion of the ‘transparent society’…why, then does the thought of this transparency strike me as so devastatingly sad?” p.271, 273
Erosion of privacy
increases transparency in a good way
reveals abuses of power
People have the illusion that they are safe in this online world. We have the illusion that we have privacy and that only our “friends” are receiving the information we send out.
Relates to the “Growing Up Online” video in the sense that the kids interviewed believed that they were safe and that they knew how to handle their privacy.
Boyd and Ellison also stated that online is a place to “hang out” further giving off this idea of safety and privacy
"Now more than ever we live in an era of illusion: the illusion that we're in control, the illusion that we have (or should have) privacy, the illusion that we're smart enough to avoid the pitfalls of Peep." (Page 275)
Google commercial: dad writing his daughter emails, taking pictures, and making videos for her to read, look at, and watch when she is older
Are we free?
“Peep is all about contradictions, which is why it’s so hard to come to firm conclusions about it as a phenomenon” p.276
Enhances our potential for empathy but also makes it difficult to truely feel for others
Increases relationships but reduces privacy
Peep will be the way that young people do anything
Make others laugh, cry, and feel
If you don't partake in Peep culture then you will disappear
If you can't access your profile then no one will care about you
Young people will base everything on the peep culture. If you don't have a facebook profile, for example, people may not care about you because you aren't part of the culture.
Peep culture is both empowering and democratic. It's a risk to privacy, refusing to participate is an even bigger risk
Conclusion: “Peep is bad when it exists to feed the all-knowing void…Peep is good when it feeds that which is uniquely human: our capacity to care without needing to know why” p.278
We like to judge others against ourselves
Peep culture is bad when we do these things in an exploitative manner
Here is a video showcasing the dangers of the peep phenomenon...
Week 4: 9/14
Participatory Culture
Participatory Culture Shifting relationships between producers and consumers Participatory Culture (Anderson):
Defined as"a neologism in reference of, but opposite to a Consumer culture — in other words a culture in which private persons (the public) do not act as consumers only, but also as contributors or producers (prosumers)" (Wikipedia).
Participatory Culture is the "shifting relationships between media audiences, producers, and consumers."
The Idea of consumers becoming producers
Participatory Culture is basically about the involvement of the consumer, in the development of ideas and solutions, for a mutually beneficial relationship with the producer.
Also called cultural convergence
In this way, the producer can gain more valuable feedback by urging consumers to get involved, and the consumer can feel more in-control of their entertainment/experience.
Bottom- up development (shift from top down)
Collective intelligence
This means ideas and products do not come from industries and companies, but from users and everyday people.
A different type of interaction which was top down, (one to many)
All of this participatory culture is part of this paradigm shift in society
The Long Tail:
Coined by Anderson, The Long Tail is defined by "what used to be popular is no longer dictated by the “culture industry” because everyday people can now determine what is popular throughtheir participation in the culture sphere."
The Long Tail is a new economic model about the new marketplace in our society. There is now room for bottom sellers. It is user driven and user made
Example of this new business model--iTunes' Genius, Amazon's suggested reading or buying, general recommendations online can drive the economy and create a whole new business model.
The Long Tail is so big that it matches up to the head, because these new obscure things are more available now, as depicted in the graph below.
The "long tail" comes from the connection called the Deep Catalog(searching for one thing leads to another, which leads to another)
Ex. Pandora Radio, If you buy an artist’s album online on iTunes, you may have similar recommendations for artists or bands that have similar interests or similar sound
The "head" is the popularity of things that come from the all-powerful culture industry.
There are so many options to choose from: mass markets have been replaced by niche markets--the new marketplace. Anderson offers a shift in consumerism. The author is physically seeing these problems occur as an editor of a magazine; his magazine doesn’t sell as well as it used to because of convergence-different ways to read magazines
The participatory culture of the internet has not only allowed for the end of physical stores like blockbuster/barnes and noble, but has also allowed user generated content to bring together obscure audiences and content.
Participatory Culture is a controversial topic that offers many pros and cons that come along with the paradigm shift:
Scarcity Vs. Abundance:
Online distribution is a world of abundance, that allows a lot more people to join in and download services and products, whereas physical stores can run out of stock and it just a one on one relationship with you and the store. Peer-to-peer sharing changes that.
Participatory culture goes with the idea of moving from scarcity to abundance—there is a limited amount of space for products (only a certain amount of radio stations that can be broadcasted), but online is limitless
“The Cheaper things are the more you are going to buy” Anderson says make things cheaper—the more people will buy.- Lower distribution costs with abundance helps to fuel this
This characteristic of participatory culture that involves a shift from scarcity to abundance, can be very beneficial for both the consumer and the producer in the ability to satiate more people in more areas, but it also creates new problems....
Pros
Cons
Diversity of the crowd
Roles of Producer and Consumer start to blur in the new environment
Different identities, skills and opinions
There are no specific roles and creates a hybrid role
More solutions to problems
"consumers" get no paycheck for their "work"
Enjoyable for consumers to participate
Possibilities for exploitation- producers make money off people for free
Consumers make content-- still not theirs its the company's property
Scarcity
Abundance
Space,Electromagnetic Spectrum, time.
Infinite Space
Quotas
"hits" are the same as misses
Needs for local audiences
Lower distribution costs
Shift Away from Mass Market
Niche Markets
Bottom Sellers
Crowdsourcing (Brabham):
The term, Crowdsourcing was coined by Jeff Howe and Mark Robinson in 2006 and is a new web-based business model. “Crowdsourcing is not just another buzzword” (Brabham 87).
Brabham feels that crowdsourcing is a new phenomenon in our society.
The idea is essentially that a company produces a problem or issue online or on a large network, and users generate multiple solutions and the most beneficial ideas are awarded and in return the company mass produces.
Brabham feels that participatory culture is beneficial to our society because not only does it give people enjoyment, it also is good for businesses, socialization and representation.
Throughout the article Brabham lists several businesses and how they utilize crowdsourcing. For example, Threadless is a T-shirt design company that uses competitions for the public to design a shirt, and the winner of this contest gets their design on a T shirt for the public.
Another example of crowdsourcing is Wikipedia and Yahoo Answers which were not mentioned in this article.
Superbowl Commercial-- Doritos offered a contest for consumers to generate ideas for possible commercials, and the winners commercial was shown during the Superbowl. This was an excellent example of crowdsourcing.
Collective Intelligence vs. Crowdsourcing—
The aggregate- is everything in total, everything combined, just the sum
The average is a compilation of the best and the worst.(the high and the low)
The aggregate is always going to be superior to the average and collective intelligence uses the aggregate.
The problem is solved in the aggregate, not by the average
Crowdsourcing requires a mix of a lot of people who are NOT alike.
Producer vs. Consumer:
Producer
Maker
Designer
Employee
Worker
Professional-expert
Active
Consumer
Buyer
User of product
Audience
“crowd”
Passive
Point being, in participatory culture the roles of the consumer and the producer start to blur. The benefit of participatory culture is that if offers people entrepreneurship and the advancement of getting a step ahead The biggest benefit of crowdsourcing is that the consumer can come up with different solutions and the idea is more democratic.
Keen:
Keen believes that participatory culture is for amateurs and not as good as the “elite media”
Promotes and encourages the idea of the “Big 6”
Keen discusses how Techno-utopianism as myth- techno-utopianism is essentially an ideology that technology will make our society "better"
”we have a moral obligation to question the development of technology”
Don’t be a slave to technologyParticipatory culture= “dangerous to the arts”
Said that amateurs are not as creative and does not like the idea of abundance.
Keen argues that participatory culture is democratizing talent which leads to a cultural flattening.
Keen discusses how participatory culture creates a culture of amateurs, not elite talent which results in a loss of creative jobs for amateur products
“Participatory Culture is like an unpaid internship” -Dr. K
Personalization/customization=”narcissism” because Keen said it is all about the individual person.
Ex. “Twouble with Twitter”
Moore's Law:
Describes a the long term change in the relationship of the space and cost
It becomes cheaper because of technological advances but there is more space, so now you are no longer limited by space and there is no additional cost (example iPods lowering in price but having more memory)
Shifting roles: merging of what these two terms(consumer and producer) actually mean. There have been a numerous amount of words that have combined the two terms to attempt to make room for a term all together.
“productive consumers”
Professional amateurs
Produsers: producer, consumer, user
The politics of “free” (Questions that are still raised about participatory culture)
Empowerment vs. exploitation. Who actually benefits from participatory culture?
Is “free” really free? Or are WE as the public and society working for free by becoming "productive consumers?"
Competing perspectives on...
Democratization of culture and participation (Keen disliked the participation, Brabham is slightly more for it, Anderson argues that it is beneficial to our growing economy and society)
Amateurs vs. professional - this concept was discussed mostly in Keen's article, how Keen views amateurs as being less capable of producing beneficial and creative work for our competing society. Authors like Brabham and Anderson believe that participatory culture is benefiting our society (Anderson more so than Brabham) they see the amateurs as beneficial because it helps business and and is enjoyable. Anderson specifically offers a entirely new business model for consumerism.
Anderson can be thought of as a techno-utopian. He believes in the ideology that technology will create a utopia and completely transform our society and economy thus making it "better." Keen argues against this idea and believes techno-utopianism is a myth, and that there is no room for consumer participation in our society. Brabham is somewhere in the middle of the two of them and believes that crowdsourcing is beneficial and enjoyable for consumers and producers.
As defined by Jenkins (2007), media convergence represents a number of technological, industrial, cultural & social changes that encompass:
the flow of content across multiple media platforms (technological convergence)
the cooperation between multiple media industries (industry convergence)
the migratory behavior of media audiences who will go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences they want (social, cultural and/or global convergence)
An easier way to remember it is as being the "collision" of:
Old" & "New" media
Grassroots ("vernacular" / folk) & Corporate ("mainstream") media
Top-down & Bottom-up processes
Producers & Consumers
Convergence was also a central part of the "second wave" of new media previously discussed by Gorman & McLean (2009). There are several different types of convergence, but most types of convergence are dependent on technological convergence (see below).
A. Technological Convergence
As noted above, this defines the flow of content across multiple media platforms; thanks to digitization, content (e.g., music, video, information) is now able to flow across a number of different media platforms. "Analog" form couldn't do that. A film was printed on film stock, a TVshow recorded on videotape, music on vinyl records or cassette tapes (smaller and different than videotape) or CDs. Films didn't play on CD players, videotapes couldn't play on a computer.
Digitization reduced all "information" to a standardized format - the "digital" format. Information is compressed and delivered as "1's and 0's" - not grooves on a record, film stock or cassette tapes. Digital information is a single "format" and can therefore be delivered and played over similar delivery technologies. This is why Jenkins argues that content has not changed, but the delivery systems through which content is delivered have.
A common fear of technological convergence is that someday all content will be delivered through one device, making all other delivery systems obsolete. The fear is that as technology advances, we'll be "ruled" by a single "medium" that This is called the "black box fallacy." It's a common narrative in futurist sci-fi stories, and hints at it in this Verizon commercial:
According to Jenkins, "old media never die" (p. 13) - the delivery technologies might, but "media" live on in ever-changing forms while being associated with different "protocols" ("social practices"). Music is music whether it comes through a vinyl record, 8-track, cassette tape or DVD. "Music" - the medium - doesn't change; the delivery technologies does. Same with film, TV, etc. But now we have a situation where all of these media are able to be delivered through a single delivery technology (e.g., laptops are no longer just for word processing; cellphones are no longer just for making calls). Yet competing delivery technologies still exist and that enable different protocols/social practices. In other words:
"Cinema did not kill theater. Television did not kill radio. Each old medium was forced to coexist with the emerging media. That’s why convergence seems more plausible as a way of understanding the past several decades of media change than the old digital revolution paradigm had. Old media are not being displaced. Rather, their functions and status are shifted by the introduction of new technologies." (Jenkins, 2006, p. 14).
B. Media Industry Convergence / Economic Convergence
Simply put, prior to media industry/economic convergence, “Companies that published newspapers, magazines, and books did very else; their involvement with other media was slight” (Itheil de Sola Pool, cited in Jenkins, p. 10). Like technologies that were previously distinct "delivery systems," media companies also tended to retain property interests in different "media" formats. TV networks were invested in TV, film studios only made films. Things are changing now to keep up with a shifting media environment. Media industry convergenceis defined by "cross-media ownership" whereby media companies have expanded into new media industries so that no single media company only owns "one type" of media format.
New patterns of cross-media ownership exploit the possibilities of convergence. The consolidation of media companies into "the Big 6" have created an oligopolistic media industry whereby a single company owns film studios, TV networks & stations, Internet properties (e.g., websites, web companies), radio stations, etc.
For example: Viacom owns owns Paramount Films (film production company), Blockbuster (video rental), Famous Players (movie theaters), MTV, VH1, Showtime, Comedy Central (replay and/or promote soundtrack). The possibilities for synergies and transmedia storytellingare endless (and profitable!).
Think about the promotion of a Paramount-released film; what benefits does cross-media ownership afford the company?
Example 2: Check out National Public Radio's multi-media website "The Picture Show"; what does it mean when a radio network launches a photoblog to provide rich details to its stories that can't be conveyed on-air? This is a fundamental transformation to how "radio" - a non-visual medium - used to be conceived.
C. Global Convergence
Global convergence is similar to to “network society”, and can be defined as the ability to co-produce and participate in global cultural products (e.g., the Numa Numa video). The result of global convergence is the cultural hybridity that results from the international circulation of media content → this makes for (supposedly) richer, more diverse / interesting media content.
D. Cultural Convergence
Technological, economic and global convergence have given way to a new type of cultural participation that Jenkins defines as “DIY (do-it-yourself) Participatory Culture;" i.e., a new participatory "folk" culture that gives average people the tools to archive, annotate, appropriate and recirculate content. Again, this is both a product of technological and media convergence as it partially contributes to technological, economic and global convergence (i.e., the "chicken or the egg?")
According to Jenkins and Ramos (2010), cultural convergence fosters "transmedia storytelling," or the extension of storytelling across multiple media formats. Transmedia storytelling is not the same as franchsing or synergies; rather, it involves the creative content production by fans (e.g., fan fiction, UGC videos, fan websites, etc.). For example, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is not just a short film; it's a narrative in which fans had a hand in extending the life of the story through the organic or "folk" creation of fan videos, fan sites and positive "buzz" about the film's pre-release. For example, this fan video parodying Dr. Horrible is one example of the way fans engaged with the film, signifying the hybridity of folk-mainstream cultural production central to cultural convergence:
In participatory DIY cultures, consumers seek out info from various sources, interact with others who share the same interests, produce their own experience of a product and contribute to the reshaping of American culture. As a result, these fans (who were once on the margins or considered part of a sub-culture/counter-culture) are moving into the center of media production and consumption and by effect, are reshaping culture.
Additional characteristics of participatory culture:
Active users, not passive consumers of media
Socially connected users, not isolated consumers
Noisy and public users, not silent and invisible consumers
Industry trying to adapt & exploit the potential of these changes
Conclusion/Wrap-Up:
Whether "convergence" truly indicates a "paradigm shift" is still up for debate but what's important to remember, as Jenkins does, is that convergence is a process - not an end-point! While it is changing the way people consume, produce and interact with media (as well as the way traditional media producers produce and interact with consumers & audiences!), nothing is set in stone and things continuously evolve. "Old" media still exists, it just comes via new delivery technologies.
It's also important to note that convergence isn't always or inherently "participatory" - take, for example, the new Gorrillaz album "The Fall" which was made entirely on an iPad with the following apps:
Speak It! Text to Speech / SoundyThingie / Mugician / Sylo Synthesiser, Sylo Synthesiser Pro / Synth / FunkBox Drum Machine / gliss / AmpliTube for iPad / XENON Groove Synthesizer / KORG iELECTRIBE / bs-16i / Mellotronics M3000 for iPad / Cleartune – Chromatic Tuner / iORGEL HD / olsynth / StudioMini XL Recording Studio / Bassline / Harmonizer / Dub Siren Pro / Moog Filtatron
The album was made by the band alone (i.e., not with the help of 'fans' or everyday 'folk) but the "instruments" used to produce the music were by no means traditional or "analog" guitars, piano, drums, etc.
Week 2: 8/31
Introduction to Social Media & Key Concepts
I. The Rise of New Media
This week discusses the "Rise of New Media" (Gorman & McLean, 2009) as a contemporary transformation in technologies and social practices embodied by "Old Media" (often referred to as "traditional," "mainstream," "commercial" or "mass" media). According to Gorman & McLean, new media technologies emerged in "two waves:"
1980s: advances in video technology, subscription TV (e.g., cable, pay-TV), fancy fax machines and storage devices like CD-ROMs (amongst other things).
1990s: advances in digitization create new information storage capabilities b/c more data can be condensed into smaller hardware (e.g., DVDs, PDAs, laptops, MP3s) as well as advances in Internet, the world-wide-web and mobile telephony (wireless internet, cellphones)
We might also note that the 2000s created a "third wave" defined by the emergence of Web 2.0 and increasingly interactivity and convergence.
However, "new" media isn't just about technologies but social practices, or the way technological advances impact how these technologies are used. Examples of the way "new" media has changed social practices include:
New methods for communicating
Networked, global distribution
Interactivity & participation
Opening an opportunity for more voices (“democratic”)
Key distinctions between "old" and "new" media can be summarized in this chart (although there are certainly more differences - feel free to build on the list!):
Communication services of mass society, mass production & mass consumption
"A new media model for mass conversation" (Spurgeon);
"the rise of mass self-communication" (Castells)
Scholars like Gorman & McLean (2009) and O'Reilly (2005) see "new media" as fundamentally different from "mass media" (i.e. the "old" media model). The changes are deemed so significant that some liken this transformation to a "paradigm shift," or a fundamental change in thinking/being.
II. Mass Society vs. Network Society
Citing the theorist Manuell Castells, Gorman & McLean (2009) state that new media technologies and emerging social practices have fundamentally altered the social structure of contemporary society. According to Castells, we now live in a networked society, which is distinct from mass society. In a network society,key structures & activities are now organized around electronic "horizontal" information networks. Through "self-directed mass communication," individuals initiate communication that bypasses traditional modes of disseminating information (i.e., the mass media) andhave the potential to reach everyone, everywhere (i.e., the 'masses').
M. Wesch's presentation to the Library of Congress about YouTube serves as a good example of "network society." Internet users are now able to produce their own creative content and exchange these creations and conversations seamlessly with others across the globe - transcending time and space.
III. Social Media
A. Definition
Social media are an example of "new media for mass conversation" that emerged from the shift in media/digital technologies. We defined social media as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content (UGC).”
Social media therefore merge 1)user-generated content and 2) Web 2.0.
Must be published on a publicly accessible website OR on a social networking site accessible to a selected group of people (e.g., no emails or IMs)
Must show a certain amount of creative effort (e.g., not simply re-posting content)
Must be created outside of professional routines and practices (e.g., not content produced for a paid job or employment)
2). Web 2.0 constitutes the ideological & technical foundation of social media and has been defined as “a platform whereby content and applications are no longer created and published by individuals, but instead are continuously modified by all users in a participatory and collaborative fashion” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, p. 61). Web 2.0 is characterized by:
Interactive “architectures of participation” (the 'nature' or 'structure' of the system) (O'Reilly, 2005) are designed for user contribution.
Promotes decentralized (vs. centralized) content creation and sharing.
For example, early Napster and the current BitTorrent platform rely on peer-to-peer (P2P) file transfers that obtain and store information (files) in a decentralized database; this is different from a "centralized" database like iTunes or Amazon (where content is hosted on a specific server for downloading). In p2p technology, [illegal] downloaders are also ‘uploaders’ who help grow the network; each client actually becomes a server so that there is no single "centralized" server. Instead, files are broken into fragments and transferred much faster since more users (i.e., "servers") are providing the fragments needed for the whole album. In that sense, the more people using it, the better it gets!
Collective Intelligence
The collaborative capabilities of Web 2.0 means that users are all co-developers or co-creators of information and knowledge (e.g., Wikipedia)
Folksonomy (nottaxonomy)
A collaborative categorization system that assigns user-created "tags" to various content. "Tagging" is generally considered a fundamental characteristic of Web 2.0 and allows users to collectively classify information. Collaborative tagging reclaims the ability to create hierarchies of meaning and relevance from top-down governing bodies (e.g., Library of Congress, editors of mass media outlets).
Example: Social bookmarking on del.ic.ious; tag clouds...
Example of a "tag cloud"
Shift from the "Read-only" Web to "Read & Write"
Where Web 1.0 only enabled internet users to "read" content, Web 2.0 allows users to read and write. The architectures of participation in Web 1.0 were created by HTML - hyper-text markup language that did not enable users to access and modify the content produced by others. Changes to HTML as the primary language for writing "code" fundamentally altered what users could do with online content.
The distinctions between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 can be best expressed by this image:
And another great M. Wesch video explaining (visually) some of the Web 1.0 / 2.0 differences:
B. Types of Social Media
There are 6 types of Social Media (Kaplan & Hanelein, 2010):
1. Collaborative Communities
Enable joint & simultaneous creation of content; promotes collective intelligence
Examples: Wikipedia, social bookmarking sites, fan communities
2. Blogs
Short for "weblogs" (we-blog; web-logs) - Websites (typically run by individuals) that feature time-stamped, chronological entries; may be text-based, photoblogs, vlogs, etc. that enable some form of user-feedback.
“Web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system” (boyd & Ellison, 2007).
Platforms that replicate a 3-D environment where players can appear in the form of personalized avatars and interact; enables the simultaneous play amongst multiple (if not millions) of users
Examples: Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) like World of Warcraft & Everquest. Advanced videogame consoles (e.g., xBox Live, PS3, Wiii) now also enable remote group-play, as well.
6. Virtual Social Worlds
Like game worlds, users appear in avatar form and interact in 3D environments but inhabitants (often identified as “residents”) choose behavior more freely; unlike MMPORGs there are fewer rules. Users essentially live a virtual life similar to "real" life.
A lot has changed or evolved in the past 20 years with the advancement of new digital technologies - our media and communication systems are changing, how we socialize and interact is changing and other organizational structures are changing. Some scholars believe the "paradigm shift" to a networked society that enables global networked communication is fundamentally transforming democratic processes, access to information, cultural production and social organization. This all begs the question: Did technology determine these changes?
Common "technologically deterministic" claims
The concept of technological determinism assumes that technology alone determines social organization, social practice and behavior.It is the belief that technology will generate social change based upon the implicit values, virtues or vices possessed by that technology” (Miller, 2010, p. 3) and suggests "that new technologies set the conditions for social change and progress [or decline]” (R. Williams cited in Miller, p. 3)
The following video is a fantastic description of technological determinsm and refutes the common claim that new media technologies and platforms (like Web 2.0, social media) will fundamentally change the world:
These assumptions about technology are problematic because:
It suggests that technological developments are "inevitable"
It assumes culture and society merely “react” to technology and are not complicit in its creation or adoption
It suggests that technology is something "separate" or independent of society
It doesn’t give agency to the inventors, society, or the people that make up society (Miller, p. 5)
It ignores the fact that technological invention is bound up in SPECIFIC social and economic contexts that shape technological developments and their diffusion
For example: technological developments under a capitalist economic system would be much different than their development under a socialist or communist organization.
Sure, Thomas Edison had a plan to make the lightbulb but his design was partially influenced by the social environment of capitalism; the market helped steer the course of its development and use (Miller, p. 6).
So under different social and economic contexts, the lightbulb could have developed in a much different way. In the same respect, couldn't media technologies have developed in a different way? For example - was it ‘inevitable’ that the internet developed as a commercial medium?
Examples of technological determinism in popular culture (or, just Google "digital media revolution"!):
INSTEAD, it is more useful to think about "what technology does" in terms of “Affordances,” "Enablements" and "Limitations"- in other words, what do the architectures of participation or features of a particular technology afford, enable or limit us to do?
Different technologies / media do different things
For example: Facebook "affords" different types of interactions than Twitter
Facebook affords users to post pictures, have instant two-way conversations (via FB chat), create "Events" and allows two-way linear "Wall" postings for everyone to see
Twitter - by nature of the available features - limits how much any user can say, doesn't enable instant two-way chat or linear conversations (the "@user" posts require a lot of toggling back-and-forth, for instance).
So we can say that Facebook enables a different kind of "socializing" than Twitter that is more egalitarian, two-way and is more productive for some activities over others. The differences in use, therefore, are fundamentally tied to the site's architectures of participation
Consider: What are the affordances of texting on cellphones vs. IM-ing? Email?
While certain features may "enable" or "limit" certain uses, this is not a deterministic argument because it does not suggest that the site's architecture determines how users will actually use the technology. There are always two possibilities to any new media technology:
Users will engage with the technology as it was intended
Users will engage with the technology in unexpected, unanticipated ways.
Social Media were "born" out of innovations in digital media technologies but the social practices that emerge from these technologies are not necessarily determined by something inherent to the technology itself. Instead, we might argue that social media afford / enable new forms of social organization and communication practices that are transforming previous social and organizational practices. As Miller (2010, p. 3) rightly notes: “It is almost inevitable that any significant new technology will be predicted to transform society, or at least to embody the potential to transform society.” While it is possible to argue that "new media" has transformed the social structure of contemporary society from "mass society" to a global "network society," we must be careful in how much power or claims to "social progress" or "social degradation" we assign to this shift. We should be wary of theorists like Castells who claim the "network society" is fundamentally "more democratic" than previous formations (e.g., mass society). While new media certainly affords new opportunities for cultural production outside the hands of top-down culture industries (e.g., convergence culture), we should be wary about any claim promoting "fundamental change," "social decline" or "progress" as changes determined or solely caused by some inherent vice, virtue or quality of any single technology.
Wikinotes Sign-Up Instructions:
Please fill your name in an empty spot below. You are only required to complete ONE Wikinotes but may sign up for more (no more than 2). If signed up for 2, I will average your grades for the final Wikinotes grade. Do NOT erase the name of another student because you want their spot - I will track it & give you a zero for the assignment! Week 4: Participatory Culture 1)Caitlin Gallagher 2)Jeremy Brandt-Vorel 3) Serena D'Angelo
Week 5: Social Networking 1)Callista Small 2)Brittany Bradsher 3)Christy Cade
Week 6: Social Media & Identity 1)Ashley Page 2)Rachel Patania 3) Esther Remington
4)Brian Koonce
Week 7: Virtual Geographies 1)Matt King 2) Daniel Blakely 3)Joseph Suarez 4)Sarah Call
Week 13, 11/16 - The Digital Enclosure: Surveillance & Control
In the beginning of the article "Nothing Comes Between Me and My CPU: Smart Clothes and 'Ubiquitous' Computing," Andrejevic purports that interactivity is slowly requiring less activity on the part of the users and more activity is being put on the part of smart (portable) objects, such as smart phones.(scanning something onto a phone instead of taking the time to look for the information by hand)
Instead of the user being invited to interact themselves, they are being invited to immerse themselves in a world in which technology does the work of interacting on their behalf. This switch in the act of interacting has the potential to led to passive interaction, which is the gathering of detailed information in an increasingly unobtrusive (on the surface) manner.
The Bourgeois Interior and the Digital Enclosure
Technologically enhanced interiority is closely associated to second-wave computing: the ability of personal computers to bring the world into the privacy of people's homes.In this section of the article, Andrejevic compares digital enclosure to the 19th century concept of bourgeois interiority. Bourgeois interiority, in relation to the 19th century, figured as a site of refuge for privileged individuals from the increasingly anonymous and alienated world and urban industrial capitalism.
The interior space was the space within where individuals could make some sort of an impression, a place in which they could distinguish the traces they made upon their surroundings from other influences. It was also thought to provide an escape from objectification and offer a form of freedom, however false, that was envisioned to occur in such an escape.
Smart clothes and ubiquitous computing offers to make the outside world reflective of the concepts of the individual subject--mass customized marketing. In other words, smart clothes and ubiquitous computing offers individuals a way to ascertain the impressions, impacts, and influences they have in their life and (possibly) their surrounding environment. Digital customization offers a space that serves as a refuge and as an illusory site of subjective control.
The Digital Arcade
Digital arcade anticipates the fantasy of a third wave computing: the transformation of the physical world into a customizable interior with the ability to recognize the wired users moving through its electro-magnetic ether (108).Arcades enlist the appeal of the bourgeois interior as a commercial strategy for transforming the streets into sites for consumption and commodification----inverting the space of the streets into the interior of a building (i.e. - malls, DSU)
Digital enclosure provides the service of commerce based on the inclusion of the object world to the universal medium of information exchange Digital enclosure is a virtual enclosure that authorizes not just the universalization of the space of consumption but a technology for making this space increasingly productive through the ongoing production of information commodities about consumer behavior.
The development of smart clothes and smart objects is an economic one designed to facilitate the rationalization of both consumption and production. They promise not just efficiency and customization, but also the perfection of market research.
Ubiquitous computing will seemingly be able to delegate the grunt work of daily life, including remembering faces and conversations, to smart objects. As a result, it has the possibility:
- of objects taking on an uncanny alertness, increasingly supplanting the active role from the humans they supposedly serve,
- of the digital devices we rely upon becoming hyperactive, and
- of RFID (radio frequency ID) technologies to promise to re-individualize mass-produced products so that each one becomes uniquely identifiable--purchased items can be traced after purchase, consumers garner a sense of recognition and indiviualization
Smart clothes revive, in digital form, the promise of the bourgeois interior as a space that provides the illusion of individuality while protecting its inhabitants from the shocks of modern life. Smart clothes allow individuals to feel as if they are their own individuals and that they make and come to their own decisions, without being influenced by outside sources (society).The Digital Flâneur
Andrejevic states that "smart clothes promise to serve as the mobile cockpit for the futuristic flâneur, storing detailed records not just of the user's movements, but of preferences, encounters, purchases and even vital signs. Smart clothing, thanks in part to its proximity, will not only feed off of the energy generated by the body, it will transform this energy into information" (112). Smart clothes, then, essentially operate in similar ways that the QSensor that Reid Hoffman was wearing as mentioned in the beginning of Gold's "The Leaking Nature of Online Privacy," essentially amounting to privacy becoming nonexistent.Smart clothes are purported to have the ability to gauge consumer response to advertisements based on their physiological responses (neuromarketing). While smart clothes are devices that allow the consumer to participate in a sort of bourgeois interiority and they look after and do the bidding of the consumer, they also do the bidding of the various manufacturers and marketers. In this sense, smart clothes are also the realization of what Benjamin saw as the commodity phantasmagoria: where the commodity comes to life and presents itself for those consumers with disposable income, transforming itself from a digital secretary into a digital overseer (114).
Conclusion: An Uncanny Fetishism
The whole article seems to assert the fact that with the invention and employment of devices such as smart clothes and ubiquitous computing, that the individual consumer will be able to make their sense of bourgeois interiority portable. While the portability of such an idea is admirable, the consequences of such a thing is never obtaining a break from marketing and advertising. Andrejevic says that "a world in which our clothes tell us where to go and what kind of shoes to wear, in which our necktie keeps track of whom we've met, [surrenders] a [confounding] autonomy to the objects that populate our world" (116). The autonomy that was once believed to belong to the consumers transfers onto the objects as a result of such kind of advanced technology.Week 12, 11/9: Immaterial Labor
The word labor itself means work that is done with the intention of getting money in return, which is also seen as a form of exploitation, because something ($$$) is gained as a result of someone else's labor.Material Labor:
Producing a material product (a physical object that can be utilized) through one's own labor.We talked in class about some controversial types of labor as far as material or imaterial. One that we came up with was an escort service. Although nothing tangible is produced from this line of work we discussed how it could be classified as both material and imaterial.
Immaterial Labor:
Defined by Maurizio Lazzarato as ‘the labour that produces the informational and cultural content of the commodity’ (Lazzarato, 1996:133), demands that the worker put his or her own life experience, communicative competency, and sense of self into the job. In other words its not tangible, produces something of value, but not something you can physically touchInvolves a series of activities that are not normally recognized as "work":
Cultural and artistic standards, fashions, tastes, consumer norms, and, more strategically, public opinion
Tend to work in advertising, fashion, marketing, television, cybernetics, and so forth, satisfy a demand by the consumer and at the same time establish that demand. (M. Lazzarato). They are the most prominent areas of work because workers attempt to make the audiences relate to their products through particular effects (especially through advertisement).
It can be used in terms of affect (valued creation and relating to emotion), happiness/companionship, information and cultural content of the commodity, and in some cases for convenience. In certain fields, these terms are related to their jobs because it is his or her job to make the customer/audience comfortable, relaxed and special. Jobs such as waiters/waitresses, bartenders, comedians, coaching a team as a volunteer, child care, hot lines, etc.
Reputation:
An extremely fluid, contingent, and precarious personal attribute generated entirely by the perception, attention and approval of others.Critic John Rodden argues that building a reputation involves an on-going process of ‘image-making’ and perception management, and, as such, is never given once and for all (Rodden, 2006:75). Acquiring a reputation takes very little skill or accomplishment, but is to be derived solely from the performance of effective attention-getting itself.
A ‘reputation’ is conditioned and, arguably, constituted by cultural and economic institutions that have the power to authorize and direct attention, and transmute that attention back into value. In other words, reputation is a cultural product, and, as such is conditioned by its mode of production. This mode of production is generally marked by the perennially exploitative relations between labour and capital as well as by other relations of power based on forms of identity such as race, sexuality and gender.
Digital Reputation:
The aspect of digital technology that is concerned with the mediation of people's experience of their own identity and the identity of other people and things. The attitude of what’s being said and how it effects you.Social media like Twitter or Facebook provide a new ‘protocol’ for social relations; they allow individuals’ personal connections to become more durable, representable, ever-expandable, and, most importantly, they render public their affective qualities (Arvidsson and Peitersen, 2009: 17). What used to be private or “intimate” information is now viewable through the eyes of the public and so is the method of evaluating the overall social worth of a person or organization: relationships a person has, who he or she is friends with, connections, quality and conduct.
- Positive and negative valiance
- Brand value of someone’s social worth
- Social relations a way of creating capital, creating a social self (knowing people)
On Tuesday Oct 20, 2009 former Bengal's WR, Chad Ochocinco released his very own iphone app dedicated completely to himself and the Bengal's organization. Ochocinco fans can follow his daily exploits in photos, videos and tweets. They can ask his advice on dating or anything else, send their own photos for posting, and track where he is each day when he's on the road. In his own words,"All Ochocinco, all the time...If you can't fly here to chill with me you can with this app," in which he informed fans on twitter post. According to Cincinnati's back-up QB, Jordan Palmer (one of the creators of the app), "It's going to parallel what Chad does on the field...the app is a glimpse into his life. It's got a little bit of everything." There are sound bites in English and Spanish; a "What Would Ochocinco Do?" section; a place to post fan pictures; videos; a "Where's Ocho?" section that tracks his travels; a place for news and more. Ochocinco was an excellent choice for an app because he was the Bengals most high-profile player, having changed his name from Johnson to Ochocinco, and his innovative touchdown celebrations have drawn both attention and NFL fines (Notice that this video was released in Feb).Self-Branding:
Hearn asserts that self-branding may be considered a form of affective, immaterial labour that is purposefully undertaken by individuals in order to garner attention, reputation and potentially, profit (2010, p. 427). Self-branding is a way for individuals to create a reputation for themselves, which can be achieved through a presentation of the self using tattoos, clothing, accessories, etc. According to Hearn businesses are no longer concerned with simply fixing a logo to a product, but rather, branding practices increasingly attempt to establish virtual contexts for consumption: experiences, spaces, and relationships are all branded. Owning a certain brand can help consumers to express and build their own self-concept, then only purchase certain trademarks when he or she finds a match between the brand image. The matching process between self-concept and image of the brand and product also directs how consumers judge the brand and product. When a brand has a positive brand-image, it means that the brand has established a strong, positive and distinct association with the consumer’s self-image. For example, an IPod has a strong and explicit image of trendy, fashionable and high-tech, this combination of brand image is unique and valued by young people, so if he or she perceives themselves as a trendy youngster who values advanced technology, the chance that he or she will buy it is very high. Alternatively, consumers may see an increased recognition in certain brands and will buy them in order to be accepted: clothes, shoes, hats, purses, etc. Through self-branding consumers achieve certain goals: what they might become or what they would like to become. By creating your own reputation, you are able to promote yourself [positively however you want].In this video, personal branding and why it matters
In this video they see the athletes of tomorrow as the new "PROTOTYPE", in others words if you are an athlete and consider yourself one of the next generations rising stars, you should by this product in order to be apart of it.
Call of Duty is one of the most recognizable brands in all of gaming, in this latest installment, Modern Warfare 3, in provides the notion that there is a soldier in all of us and that one can achieve this goal by buying and playing this game
In some situations someone may not be able to create their own brand but instead may be influenced by someone else. A brand can be given to someone by someone like their family or friends. One example of getting a brand by someone else is the movie Roll Tide/War Eagle on ESPN. In this movie there is a man who is a die hard Alabama fan. He talks about naming his children after major Alabama figures. His first son was named Bear Bryant after Alabama's most know coach. He later named his daughter Allie Bama which is pretty self explanitory. I found this to be a good example of how branding can influence your life from the day you are born.
Brand valuation:
Brand valuation the process of quantifying something that isn't quantifiable: turning quality information into quantity information, such as the reputation of a corporation. In other words - adding or creating brand value. It is crucial in effective brand management; this process enables marketers to obtain a more accurate idea about how powerful a brand name is and will help marketers decide what their future marketing strategy would be. These designs, terms or symbols are considered as ownership labels, which allows consumers to distinguish a product or service from all the others. Legal protection is also provided to a particular brand name in order to prevent competitors from capitalizing on them. Free labor is used to evaluate brand reputation. A brand's reputation is measured through relationships (the number of times it is talked about), the number of times the brand/product is purchased, and the number of times it is seen and/or heard about. A brand's reputation is turned into a physical dollar sign (reputation = $$$).Knowledge Brokers:
Knowledge brokers, also known as innomediaries, assess the evaluation of a brand; they collect information about a product or service in order to give feedback to corporations and other third parties. There are different types of knowledge brokers, three being listening platforms, sentiment analysis, and reputation management. Listening platforms (Sysomos, Radian6, Bazaarvoice) troll the web in order to offer real time intelligence about the reputation of their clients' product, brand, or service. Sentiment Analysis (Radian6) looks at the linguistics, or the terms used in association with their clients' product, brand, or service, and parses them into positive or negative valence, or the positive or negative view that's attributed to an image (how people feel about the image). Sentiment analysis also has the ability to intervene in real time in order to better a company's reputation. Reputation management offers guidance on the best way for a company to intervene in and manage conversations and opinions being expressed online, such as participating in chat room conversations in order to identify brand fans among already existing consumers and putting them to work, for free, in order to enhance the company's brand. The objective is to make money and a career out of exploiting prosumers' information through pre-established participatory culture. Their goal is to figure out what a brand means to you, and using that data in order to create brand loyalty. In addition to these three types of knowledge brokers, there are also online services that take a more direct involvement in constructing and managing one's reputation online.This video gives a synopsis about different (paid) online services that will assess an individual's or corporation's online reputation and provide a service that will control and manipulate information about a client in order to create a positive reputation for them.
Broughton - Social Media Use Builds Fan Avidity:
Sports fan are connecting with the leagues through social-media sites, and as a result they are considered to be more enthusiastic fans of the leagues now than they were prior to the advent of such sites, according to a survey recently conducted by Catalyst Public Relations in conjunction with SportsBusiness Journal. The use of social media in sports helps keeps fans connected to his or her respective team through: team fan pages, facebook, twitter, mobile devices and so on. In fact, social media has even gained new fans that were not originally fans of the sport through fantasy football; an interactive, virtual competition in which people manage professional football players versus one another and that allows people to act as general managers of [virtual] football team. The players that an individual is able to manage are professional players in the NFL. The different actions people are able to make are: drafting, trading, adding/dropping players, and changing rosters.More and more sports teams are hiring directors of social media, and those individuals will be charged with "integrating social media into the team's broadcasts, in-stadium media and marketing efforts" (Broughton, 2010, p.3). Doing this will allow sports teams to engage in knowledge brokerage and brand evaluation. Because of the increase of Fantasy Football many other companies have used this to their advantage. For example DirecTV has a program where you can download your fantasy team and see how they are doing every sunday for a small fee.
Belsen & Arango - Leagues See Bloggers...:
This article covers how fans are illegally uploading photos and videos from collegiate and professional games and adding them to their personal site. Normally these industries would not have a problem with uploading their pictures or videos, however once they add them to personal sites to make a profit, then they have a problem and try to shut them down. One reason why these industries want to stop individuals from uploading pictures or videos and making a profit, is because it is undermining the industry for when they want to market video of a game and file footage to their fans in the fall. By fans posting pictures and videos of the game, they are taking away from the SEC, the Big Ten, and other collegiate conferences' self-branding process. Their trying to put a stop to fans profiting from pictures and videos of games is their way (their being the SEC, the Big Ten, and other collegiate conferences) of enforcing reputation management.Conclusion:
"The reputation we generate is simply a reputation for building the reputation of others, resulting in a seemingly endless circuit of exchange without foundation" (Hearn, 2010, p.435).Material Labor- Producing a material product through one's own labor
Immaterial Labor-produces something of value, but not something you can physically touch
Reputation-fluid, contingent, and precarious personal attribute generated entirely by the perception
Self-Branding-attempt to establish virtual contexts for consumption
Brand Evaluation-designs, terms or symbols that are considered as ownership labels
Knowledge Brokers-interact produce opinion online any and entity takes info and sell to 3rd party
Broughton - Social Media Use Builds Fan Avidity- increase in sports fans do to social media sites
Belsen & Arango - Leagues See Bloggers- illegal use of uploading photos and videos for profit
Week 11, 11/2: Privacy
"In exchange for giving up some of our privacy, we acquire more reliable information about one another" (Gold).
One question that comes to mind is how can openness be valued?
What are the positives and negatives connected to less privacy settings?
This YouTube video is about a smart toothbrush and mirror created by students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The smart toothbrush and mirror empowers people to brush their teeth better. By creating this system, companies can benefit from the studies shown and try and make toothpaste or toothbrushes better. Companies can also create advertisements and gather the data from the smart toothbrush and mirror to show what needs improvement with the way people brush their teeth. However, what happens when that data gets sent out, to say for example your dentist, and you do not want them to know? They can constantly see the health condition of your teeth and see if you are brushing your teeth properly or not.
Kevin Gold
1) According to Gold, the software uses statistics gleaned from large data sets about how often friends tend to have characteristics in common when they are a part of a community and how often they might simply share characteristics by chance; then it combines several such probabilities into a statistically motivated guess as to whether a person belongs to a particular community. So it's not actually possible to participate in social networks without revealing anything about yourself; you reveal your interests by association. I think that it is possible to have some sort of control over privacy on SNS's; however, if any information is given out on your page and the person doesn't restrict the friends that they have on the site then they lose the privacy rapidly. A person that opts out of any affiliation with SNS's has the best chance at staying private however anyone one of their friends has the ability to upload a picture of them or mention them in a post which can rapidly take away from that persons privacy.2) By taking privacy away from people that depletes the ability to fake an identity. As seen in the film Catfish, false identities are very simple as long as a person does not have to back up their identity in real life. If someone is only seen on SNS's and withholds the optimal privacy settings they can be whoever they want to be. If a person had to look into new age pattern recognition software to confirm their identity before using the site it would be much tougher to falsify an identity.
3) Pattern recognition software are programs that take in data and sort them into different categories so that many different tasks are completed efficiently. This undermines privacy because when these programs take in information and group it together about a person that person is not necessarily giving permission for them to do so. The information received and grouped by these programs can then be used to target advertise to these people and allows companies to exploit people's ideas for free.
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Christian Fuchs
1) The change of Facebook's privacy policies has come shortly after members of the initiative �Europe versus Facebook� filed privacy violation complaints against Facebook to the Irish Data Protection Commissioner. The length and complexity of Facebook's privacy policy has increased. Facebook has introduced new features like instant personalization that have increased the non-transparency of data storage. It is not clear for a user, which data Facebook stores about her/him, with whom Facebook shares user data, and which data exactly Facebook partners store. Facebook continues to receive data about users from other websites. Facebook continues to commodify user data by using targeted advertising. It does not use opt-in for advertising, targeted ads are automatically and always activated. Internet prosumer commodification continues to be Facebook's capital accumulation model. Facebook has implemented a user participation mechanism in privacy decision-making that is formulated in an extremely shallow way so that this regulation seems to be an ideological pseudo-participation strategy.2) Fuchs idea of prosumer comodification is about how data about the user has become a commodity to be used by the company to. This means that peoples information on SNS's is being used and exploited for their own corporate gain.
3) �Europe versus Facebook� filed privacy violation complaints against Facebook to the Irish Data Protection Commissioner. The length and complexity of Facebook's privacy policy has increased. Facebook has introduced new features like instant personalization that have increased the non-transparency of data storage. These are the objectives for Europe vs Facebook.
http://europe-v-facebook.org/EN/Objectives/objectives.html
4) Targeted advertisement is when a company or person uses information about a person to find out different things about them and then exploit that information and advertise things to that person that they would most likely enjoy. This is different from regular advertisement because in regular advertisement everyone is experiencing the same advertisement where with targeted it is personal and people are more likely to buy things they are interested in.
Danah Boyd
1) The new function of the newsfeed brought everyones personal page business from their page to everyones page. With the new feature people didn't have to view someones page to see what they were doing now people could view one screen and see what everyone of their friends had been doing on Facebook lately.2) This new feature made exclusion central to privacy on Facebook because anything that was put on there or any action taken by people was at the forefront of the newsfeed. This meant if you wanted things to stay private you just didn't put them up on Facebook.
3) Exclusion is different from inclusion because one deals with bringing information into something (including it) and leaving information out of something (excluding it). On Facebook if you want your information to be private you need to either exclude people from seeing your stuff, which is not as effective as it seems, or you need to exclude it from Facebook all together.
4) Social convergence occurs when disparate social contexts are collapsed into one. Even in public settings, people are accustomed to maintaining discrete social contexts separated by space. How one behaves is typically dependent on the norms in a given social context. How one behaves in a pub differs from how one behaves in a family park, even though both are ostensibly public. Social convergence requires people to handle disparate audiences simultaneously without a social script. While social convergence allows information to be spread more efficiently, this is not always what people desire. As with other forms of convergence, control is lost with social convergence. Can we celebrate people's inability to control private information in the same breath as we celebrate mainstream media's inability to control what information is broadcast to us?
5) Privacy is not an inalienable right. It is a privilege that must be protected socially and structurally in order to exist. The question remains as to whether or not privacy is something that society wishes to support.
Progressive commercials about their new SnapShot feature:According to Progressive, their new SnapShot discount rewards clients with discounts up to 30% more than their current rate for their good driving. The SnapShot discount also includes the number of miles you drive, time of day you drive and how often you make sudden stops. People who drive less, in safer ways and during safer times of day could get a discount. This is similar to the smart toothbrush and mirror where the corporation collects results and sees how you can improve.
Conclusion:
Here are some key concepts discussed in class and from the readings:Week 10, 10/26: Flashmobs & Social Organization
Flashmobs are spontaneous gatherings which usually only last for a few minutes. People gather in public places and perform some sort of communistic task.
The following link portrays a group flash mob at the public place of a mall providing shoppers with some holiday cheer to brighten their day.
This next video portrays artistic expression. The participants in this flashmob are portraying their artistic ability which create certain feelings and actions for those around, yet not participating.
Political Flashmob: Target. This video shows how explicit and overtly political a flashmob's message has the potential to be. They have created a song that says exactly what they are disgruntled about and let those around them hear their words.
Capitalism has responded to Flashmobs popularity and used it in their advertising, and using in AT&T and other mobile phone commercials.
Occupy Wall Street (99% vs. 1%)
What are people occupying about?
The 99% is mad because of the power, wealth, and opportunities afforded to the 1%. According to this article, “Occupy Wall Street is a diffuse group of activists that stand against corporate greed, social inequality, and the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process.”
Gatekeepers: When Occupy WallStreet first began many people had no clue it was even taking place. The major TV networks were not broadcasting the event. They were ignoring the issue completely. The Big Businesses own the networks/news stations and these gatekeepers control what they broadcast to the public.
SO... Occupy Wall Street is considered a flashmob since their actions take place in a public place, their goal is to balance some of the social inequalities that are burdened upon the less fortunate in our nation, and the type of flashmob is clearly overtly political. They are also an example of a flashmob that has never dispersed. Ironically capitalism responds to the OWS in the form of MTV wanting to do a show surrounding the movement. While the intentions may be good for promoting a cause it is not about politics and centers more on corporate greed because it will become a spectacle that is too commercial. Protesters at OWS are "drawn to the movement by a desire to unite."
However we are able to see that this is indeed a political movement because as a group they are able to organize, they have the freedom to do what they want, and because there is a general goal/purpose behind it.
How does OWS use "stillness" and "mobility" as political practice (or, a threat to capitalism)?
In a literal sense stillness is seen because the participants of the flashmob have been in the city (New York) for over a month, whereas the mobility could be seen in their move to Times Square. On the other hand if you look deeper into what is actually transpiring from the actions of the participants within the flashmob, stillness and mobility could have other meanings. Stillness can be seen as a threatening figure for capitalism according to this article, Risk of Stillness. The author argues that "at the heart of capitalism is a state of permanent mobility, a condition to which polar inertia attests." Ultimately what this is saying is that by staying in the city and continuously protesting they as individuals, and as a group, are not doing anything to promote the capitalistic values our society is centered upon, since they are in a way doing "nothing". Mobility can be seen as a political practice in that "increasingly, everyday living and practices depend on how mobility (and immobility) is articulated through the ever-present influence of a range of physical and virtual infrastructures". Thus, the OWS flashmob and their ability to congregate, mobilize, and move to one place to protest for their rights, beliefs, and values is an example of mobility as political practice.
Flashmob Hysteria
In this article, hundreds of young Black Philadelphians are described taking over a Macy’s in City Center through communicating via text message. Using this form of social media, these young Philadelphians were able to gather remotely and undetectable by outside forces, until their movement was already underway. During this time much of the news surrounding this event made the flashmob’s actions sound racist and violent, however, the author claims this was their attempt to demonstrate their existence, reclaim public space, and resist segregation and social inequalities. This flashmob had an undesired outcome for the participants, which led to a 9 p.m. curfew for youth in the area that was mobbed.
How does social media play a role in flashmobs (in particular the OWS)?Hackathons: Making Apps. for the purpose to Occupy Wallstreet. Such as Shouty App.
Social Media did not cause OWS but social media affords people to mobilize more quickly. Every night they general assemble in the park. They go over goals, make general requests, and make plans for mobilization. They use hand signals to vote YAY or NAY. They are forbidden by the city to use microphones or amplification technology.
Protestors have created the peoples microphone. This is a human amplification system. "We amplify each other's voices so we can hear one another."
They are usings apps like Shouty to broadcast the general assembly to others further away through their phones in live time!
Institutions Fight Against Flashmobs
As flashmobs have the potential to be dangerous and even illegal (such as organized looting or robbery), institutions such as the government feel the right to fight back. In this article on the crackdown of flashmobs and social riots, some drastic measures have been pondered.
The article mentions several flashmob instances:
*These issues all seem to encroach on our (the people's) right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, which enable us the ability to speak our minds, protest, assemble, so that word can spread and hopefully some sort of action to take place that could overthrow a certain order or recurring action that is constant in our status quo. If these freedoms were not present and part of our lives, corrupt and powerful forces at the top could create quite undesirable circumstances for those underneath. Having the ability to construct a flashmob affords people the opportunity to have their voice heard and even to enact measurable change.
While some leaders, government agencies, or whatever overarching institution may be against social media's ability to communicate and direct organization, author Christian Christensen, in a blog post titled Iran: networked dissent, delves into the issues surrounding Ahmadinejad as well the protests that followed. When the government disrupted cell phone usage and text messaging capabilities, social media became an increasingly important platform to share information for those involved, as well as to share to those who want to know the news, which could develop more participants whatever movement. Author Christensen writes, "Enter Twitter and Facebook, which rapidly became vital tools to relay news and information on anti-government protests to people inside and outside Iran." He goes on to say that these social media tools portray the ability to potentially fight oppression and conflict on a large scale. Stories like this one truly show the capability and importance of the social media tools and networking advantages that our generation has over previous ones.
Week 8, 10/19: Mobility & Virtual Networks
To view the Course Prezi on Mobility & Virtual Networks go HEREA summary of: Humphreys, L. (2008). Mobile social networks and social practice: A case study of Dodgeball. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13, 341-360.
Through twenty-one in-depth interviews on the use of Dodgeball, a mobile social network system (MSNS), the article reports on the social and behavioral norms associated with its use while also serving as an introductory article on the MSN. By combining the theories of “third places” with “mediaspaces,” the author offers five emerging themes to describe Dodgeball users and the service’s use that highlight the communicative differences between online social networking usage (SNSs) and offline MSN usage.
Themes of use show that the service has functional, performative, and social cataloging purposes. Its functional purpose offers a highly local component that serves immediate and proximate connections comprised of a “loose” social network rather than a way of keeping in touch with far away friends. The system takes less work and interpersonal communication to facilitate or coordinate gathers, therefore leaving the user and others open to more opportunities for social interaction. However, its usage can also serve a performative function, meaning ‘shouts’ may sometimes be about showing off or self-branding. Cataloging one’s life is a third function that serves as a digital social diary or mapping of one’s social life. Key to the author’s main point, however, is that the service creates “social molecularization” via collectivized momentum - i.e., collective social movement within and across urban spaces. Meaning, while the use of MSNS impacts collective social movement through urban environments to create “third spaces,” thus demonstrating that technology impacts social movement through space. This type of "sociality" (i.e., socializing / social relations) typically maintains relatively homogenous communities (in terms of group demographics). This is different from the notion of "third places" which are typically characterized by their "diverse" nature (as they're often random meeting places for acquaintances in urban communities - see below). Ultimately, Dodgeball’s use by early adopters ties social networks to physical offline spaces that can ‘strengthen, modify and rearrange how urban public spaces and social connections are experienced” (p. 344). Future research should consider how mobile services that offer social-location information may impact or contribute to social collective movement through space; future research might also investigate ‘discontinued use’ of MSNSs, as well as “the ways in which people adopt and integrate these kinds of systems into their everyday lives.” (p. 357).
Humphrey's main point revolves around the role that MSNs play in the creation of a "third space" which she theorizes as what emerges through the combination of third places and mediaspaces. By third places Humphreys refers to as public places that host regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work (hence, a "third place"). These are neutral spaces where people generally feel equal to one another. Conversation is the main activity, there's no required pre-planning; these spaces are central to an individual's sense of community. For example, in the TV program Cheers, the bar is considered a "third place" (where everybody knows your name...)
In the above clip, a bunch of (seemingly) diverse individuals are sitting around talking, they're all "regulars" and know they can gather in this neutral third place (not home, not work) where they can be themselves in an informal environment. The beauty of third places are the random conversations and unexpected moments of closeness that can emerge from spontaneous acts within the third place like the above clip.
In this clip from Good Will Hunting, the bar also becomes a third place where conversation is central amongst friends:
For Humphreys, the term "third places" doesn't account for how technology/media are used in these places to organize individuals who meet there, or how media/technology are used in these spaces in a way that fundamentally alters the social relations within the space. To account for the role of media and technology in the social formation of space and place Humphreys draws from the theory of mediaspace. Mediaspace is defined as "the mutual connection, dependence, and constitution of communication technology and space" (p. 2). In simplicity, mediaspace is the electronic settings of working together regardless of a place or time. It is also understood as a physical component that is bridged with a virtual space. In order to understand the role that MSNs like Dodgeball have in the construction of space, she explores the notion of urban social space with mediaspace theory to explore how tying social networks to physical locations can strengthen, modify, and rearrange how urban public spaces and social connections are experienced. The sharing of social information through MSNS should be able to transform users' experiences of the public spaces they inhabit. Thus Dodgeball might be able to facilitate the production of meaningful gathering spaces, like third places, within a modern urban landscape. Mediaspace theory thus argues that media use is tied to spatial practices, both social and physical; media also “links” separate spaces/places and in doing so, it can help TRANSCEND physical place/space.
Which leads us to....
How Dodgeball (or MSNs) create "third spaces"
Third spaces, as defined by Humphrey, are spaces made up by confined interactions among a narrow group of people within a potentially diverse locational space. Third spaces are constantly moving and changing, they are fluid; creates a sense of community. These are different from third places, then, because it is no longer a diverse group of people frequenting a single place (like Cheers) but a narrow group (i.e., homogenous) that is constantly moving to diverse spaces. MSNs like Dodgeball through the use of "check-ins" or "shouts" facilitate this fluidity - the constant movement from place-to-place. This is fundamentally different than third places which are static (just think back to all the people sitting in the same old chairs in Cheers. Those people aren't meeting one another anywhere else except for Cheers! They don't check their cellphones, see where Sam Malone is chillin and go visit him and then do that several times over in a given night or over a week - they go to Cheers and Cheers alone).
In summary, sharing social info thru MSNs can transform our experience of public space. This activity can also help create new ‘third places’ and meaningful offline relationships. So MSNs can help create a third space (not third place)
a. Unlike third places, it’s not just one single meeting place but fluid, always changing location
b. Much more fluid & dynamic (where & who)
c. Demographically similar / homogenous (whereas third places = diverse) because it facilitates coordination among groups of non-close friends (e.g., loose social networks), so that various places can become congregative third spaces. It's not the same-old, same-old hangout. So unlike third places, space is managed not by a single walled “space” (e.g, Cheers; or your favorite Starbucks) but is a location that's always changing
d. It REQUIRES use of media/technology (hence, mediaspace)
The outcome? It can make city feel smaller; closer; less anonymous.
Social molecularization:MSNs encourage socialization in the form of "social molecularization," meaning informants both experience and move about through the city in a collective manner.
Users and “informants” can utilize and experience moving about through a geographical area collectively instead as individually. Social molecularization promotes uniform movement
individually and collectively. The idea is that people will move around and use [Dodgeball] as a way to communicate space and their whereabouts. In other words, people experience space more socially through the use of MSNs. Social molecularization allows for:
o indirect communication or notification about public places (can notify of location w/o directly inviting people)
o exchange of social and locational information is accelerated, because occurs in real time;
o allows users to make decisions about their physical movements based on the social and spatial information available to them.
This term is relevant to Dodgeball because social molecularization allows users to communicate indirectly about public places instead of discussing them explicitly (Humphreys) Basically
friends do not have to tell a friend what bar or restaurant they are at, they can simply “indirectly” let them know by checking into that venue, and then everyone else will soon follow.
What are the results?
- indirect communication opens groups of people to new places in the city to congregate
- impacts movement thru space / change the way you move thru a city
- "Collective momentum:” where check-ins inspire other check-ins
- Social pressure to congregate / move rather than stay in a single place
- Dodgeball contributes to a collective experience based on movement
- becomes another means of using technology in maintaining and reinforcing social bonds
An example from the film Step Up 2 shows how simple text messages organize an existing group of friends ("narrow group", despite their racially diverse make-up) into a 'third space." This process of moving together at the same time exemplifies "collective momentum" (inspired by text messages, of course, not check-ins).
Thus, MSNs enables public spaces to facilitate social cohesion amongst networks. In contrast to place-based acquaintanceships, third spaces allow for habitual, dynamic, and technologically-enabled face-to-face interaction among loosely tied groups of friends.
Week 7 10/5
Identity, Performance and Virtual Geographies
A question that begs to be answered today in a society dominated by technology. As the weeks progress, we have become more in tune with the idea that social media is continually playing a fundamental role in our lives; affecting our perceptions, ideas, values and beliefs.
Social Media 2011 facts in less than 3 minutes
Social Media is increasing at an exponential rate and we as "compulsive internet users" never really grasp the extent at which this is happening. This video highlights how fast social media is increasing in popularity and the dramatic effects it has had worldwide. Papacharissi states that social media is "socially shaped and shaping socially" which reinforces the key idea that we are collectively bringing together information to greater our understanding (Papacharissi p.216).
Preliminary Lecture Discussion- Continuation of Last week (Papacharissi)
Class Opinions + Examples
From the Social Media Literacy Group Projects, we can take away the variances between the pages under scope. Whether it is an online dating site, social networking site or discussion forum site we can see that each page has a particular audience they are targeting. The particular audience is drawn into the site by not only the culture but by the set up of it's virtual geographies and what it has to offer. The strongest example is LinkedIn which ties into the business world of networking and making connections. The architecture and layout of the page is more professional and offers a way to present yourself online as someone who is serious, committed to being successful and driven to make it in the business world. We must also take away the ever changing nature of the cultures sites that impact a site to change it's features and virtual geographies that are tailored to the user.
Here is an academic article on the characteristics of online dating users. They conducted an extensive study of 367 single dutch people aged between 18 and 60 years of age. A comprehensive survey was completed and some interesting results were found. This study was used for the official statistics in the Netherlands.
There are three videos on YouTube of Papacharissi speaking about "New Media" found here.
Social Network Sites (SNS) Summary
What do we know about SNSs?
Social Networking Sites allow individuals to create a virtual identity that can be in allignment to the physical world, or the complete opposite through the anonymity of social media sites. Your identity in the world reflects on who you are, what types of people you surround yourself with, your interests, hobbies, political views etc. which can all be found on your personal information. Although social networking sites indicate by their name a means for networking with others and creating contacts, they are far more than that. Understanding individuals can be far more effective online versus offline whereby their personality characteristics are present along with their physical features via photos. Here is an interesting academic article that delves deeper into why the identity of different social networking sites are impacted by: culture, age, gender, race and ethnicity.
How are photo galleries used as an instrument of self-presentation on Facebook (FB)? (Papacharissi, 2010)
Every individual will go through the process of asking themselves a few questions before posting a photo:
1-Is this really appropriate?
2-Will my parents see this?
3-Will my coach see this?
4-Do I look cool?
After this process is complete, individuals will either adhere to their answers via the pre-questionaire or just post them anyway. The reasons behind individuals posting photos despite obvious consequences or implications is the image they are trying to portray. Whether the image they are trying to portray is group affiliated oriented or just to send a message to other Facebook users, Papacharissi makes it clear that photos are a source of self presentation. Not only through photos do we see this happening, but in any feature on a social networking site. Individuals who are wearing a certain brand are sending a message that they are within that certain group of people or individuals that change their relationship status to "single and ready to mingle" also send a message. These messages can be subtle, but for the most part are not as they come up on news feeds and on other peoples walls. The point of social media sites is to share information, therefore your identity and self presentation are an inevitable part that will come out through simply having a Facebook or any other profile linked to a social media site; simply due to the nature of SNS's.
Comedic Relief Example: Dr.Kathleen Kuehn cover photo- peace fingers up, taken at the Sundance festival. Sending the message to the wider public that she:
a) Has been to the Sun-dance Festival twice
b) Supports peace, love and happiness to all
c) Is artistic
d) Enjoys independent films
e) Subtly communicates "make love not war"
NOTE: If any of the above statements may impact our grade, they are subject to change at will and more flattering statements will promptly be posted.
How differences are indirectly communicated through the design of the online space ie. Architecture:
- Relates back to the Riley article; discussing Web 2.0 differences, has opened up whole new platforms of participatory opportunity
- Facebook designed to be highly social and friendship orientated versus LinkedIn which is primarily oriented for business and professionals
- Architecture can be viewed as: the physical layout and formatting, the location of things and how the space is used and organized
- all architectural decisions are carried through for a specific purpose, e.g. site designers
- Features and options available are thoughtfully constructed, purposeful, communicative and shape movement through space
- Example 1: Layout of Classroom is designed for attention to be directed towards the front with a semi-circular designed room, chairs facing forward, no pictures or designs on walls, dull atmosphere, sound proof walls and windows that are in the back and covered by blinds
- Example 2: The David Student Union (DSU) has a Jeffersonian style architecture similar to what you would find at UVA. To help reconcile the President Trible's desire for a symmetrical Tidewater aesthetic and a modern, asymmetrical student center program, the new student union is conceptualized as two separate buildings connected by an interior "Street."
Interesting link on School Designs which covers the meanings and symbolization's behind designs of buildings, interconnected to architecture and the underlying motives of designers. Click here.What is contemporary architecture? Where is it used?
Architecture is no longer a term used in the physical world, it now has direct linkages to the online virtual world. The way social media sites are presented to consumers is a form of a virtual geography. The features they offer and the way the page is constructed all gel neatly together to enable us to perform certain actions on their site. For example, on Facebook whenever you go onto a individuals page, the "add friend" button screams out to you. At the same token, if the individual is already on your friends list, the "like" button is one you just can't escape. These features that run predominantly throughout the geography of a page are ways that the creators are encouraging users to participate in these features. Furthermore, revisiting MySpace pages also forces you to scroll down a users page to get to their song, either to stop it or get the name of the artist you may be interested in.
Findings:
I. Confluence (the merging) of public and private:
II. Self-presentation in privately and publicly private spaces
What are the ways in which SNSs spatially communicate public versus private?
Google+ has been noted from the CEO of Google's social media as "more than just a social networking site, it is real life sharing." Although the site was originally intended for private use by invite only, it has extended its services to the wider public. This transition from public to private is interesting in that Google+ is no longer exclusive but will be placed with the opportunity to become more popular. The new software that Google + implements makes connecting with people more realistic and in turn breaks down those private boundaries and reinforces the notions of an open public sphere.
III. Taste Cultures, Inclusion/Exclusion
IV. Tightness/looseness
- “Situational properties” can influence behavior differently in the same social setting across different communities
Tightness and looseness can be seen as the constraints the social media site places on users, whether it be limited options in their profile information or allowing individuals to post and display just about anything. LinkedIn and a SmallWorld use tightness as a way of maintaining the sites state of affairs. Users have limited options in what they can post on their profiles which limits users abilities to cause social mayhem and in turn keeps the sites mentality reputable and introduce a set of norms. Facebook on the other hand allows individuals to write superhero, president or just about anything as their occupation. Individuals can distort their profile information to whatever means they want which brings down the caliber and mentality of the users on the site. Clearly, reporting photos or inappropriate content on Facebook is not enough.Conclusion
Here are a few key points from the pieces discussed in class. These are by no means everything we discussed however if after reading through the notes you know nothing about the things below, then possibly REREAD!
References
Papacharissi, Z. (n.d.). The virtual geographies of social networks: a comparative analysis of Facebook, LinkedIn and ASmallWorld . New Media & Society . Retrieved October 20, 2011, from http://nms.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/1-2/199
Week 6 9/28
Social Media and Identity
"Catfish" and Social Identity
This film offers insight into the world of social media. Throughout the film, Facebook is used to connect two people in different parts of the country. The film is a great example of how social networking sites can be a way for users to create identities different from their own. Facebook, along with Youtube gives users ways to perform and expand their identity, and in this case, even multiple identities. There are many different characters throughout the film that use social media sites in different ways. Although the identities created are not always "real", they are more of performing identities.
- Nev- uses Facebook to showcase his photography, connect with friends, and create new relationships
- Rel- uses Google Maps or a Map app to show the different places they traveled
- Angela- uses Facebook to create different identities to make up for her lost youth, imagined self- creating a new self from past versions of yourself
- YouTube was also used as a way to find music, Angela also uses this as a way to perform her identity as a "singer".
Facebook is often used as a shield to hide people from who they really are. Social networking has become such a part of our generation, we often don't take the time to meet people in person. Catfish shows us the astonishing reality about what might happen if we leave our desks. It shows us that social networking sites do not reveal everything about a person, the person directly chooses what goes on their profile to portray themselves as how they want to be seen. As a society we have become so desensitized to what we see that a women pretending to be 15 people doesn't seem so harmful. In the case of Catfish; Angela did not do any real harm to Nev and they will each continue to live their separate lives.On the other hand, pretending to be another person online can be harmful to others. In the ABC Family original movie "Cyberbully" a young girl is bullied on a social networking site by a fake guy who was created by no other than her best friend. It sounds twisted and crazy, but you would have to see the film to truly understand the motives. In short because of all the hateful things stated online this girl tried to kill herself. She might have just tried to kill herself, but people all over the world actually do because of things said on social networking sites.
We live in a transparent society, the erosion of privacy through the means of technology, and because of this whatever you put online is no longer private. Anyone can "look in" on you as described by Niedzviecki in his article on peep culture. Knowing this people do what is called perform identity, put on a show through pictures and statuses, so that viewers see what you want them to see. Pictures are a way of articulating identity, like a social ritual. Mendelson and Papacharissi in their article "Look at Us" explain how showing photos is "highly ritualized." They quote Boerdam & Martinius (1980) “People give a ‘performance’ when they allow themselves to be photographed, in the sense that they make allowance for a public that will ultimately see the photograph.” Identity is not a fixed test, we are all multiple imagined selves. Intersectionality is what creates identity, and Angela used fragments of her past,(i.e. who she wanted to be when she was younger) to create mutliple selves.
In the film "Catfish", Angela performs many identities, terms that Mendelson and Papacharissi refer to in their article "Look at Us" about how Facebook photo albums offer a way for college students to perform certain identities that they want other people to see. Just as college students can manipulate what pictures they are tagged in and what photos of them that their friends can see to form their identity, Angela used photos of different people that caused Nev to believe that he was interacting with all different people with all different looks and interests when, in reality, all of them were Angela. She chose to perform multiple identities that incorporated all of the things that she never got to be. She performed as the people she wished that she could be. This may have been a way of reclaiming her past. For example, she stated that she wanted to be a singer, a professional dancer and an artist. When she was pretending to be her daughter, Megan, she told Nev that "Megan" was a model, a dancer, and a singer. She even sent him songs that she claimed she had recorded herself.
The filmmakers were also performing identity. In the Willett article, "Consumption, Production, and Online Identities", she describes how filmmakers perform their identities through parodies made on YouTube. By putting themselves into the powerful positions of direction and producer, they created a play space so that their identities could unfold. For example, in Catfish, Nev's brother and their close friend decide to include certain instances, like showing how close the two brothers are and that the third friend is always with them. Through this, they are demonstrating closeness, a family relationship, and that they are not hyper masculine. Their expression of friendship occurs through digital media. They also reveal their technological skills and their ability to create films.
In conclusion, the term performing identity suggests that it is not necessarily something that is perhaps real. Identity is not a fixed state-- rather, we are multiple selves and we have imagined selves. Because social media can be anonymous, there are actually imagined selves who are creating things-- cultural products, social relationships, and entertainment-- as people who they totally imagined themselves to be. Think about it...we wouldn't have Catfish without Angela. What could be some of the benefits and drawbacks of people doing things this way?
This video shows how parts of the three men's identities may or may not have been portrayed in the movie because of the multiple roles of relationships between them (brothers, best friends, co-workers)...
Levi-Strauss’s term “bricolage” refers the phenomenon in which young people take pieces of different aspects of society and assimilate them into their own identities. In her article, Willett used that analysis of homepages by Chandler and Roberts-Young as an example, stating that “including, omitting, adapting and arranging these messages, the ‘bricolur’ is also constructing and forming an identity.” Although not polar opposites, “bricolage” is very different from the theory of Intersectionality, which is defined by Adrien Wing as “the notion that identity is multiplicative rather than additive.” Basically, identity is being defined by how all the different parts intersect and interlock rather than one piece place on top of the other. Instead of having one brick wall with many different blocks cemented together, you have one large block with all of the different components mixed in. Another difference between these two theories is that bricolage mostly refers to how one intentionally builds an identity, especially concerning online profiles. Intersecionality focuses more on how to define and make sense of an identity that already exists.Week 5: 9/21
Social Network SitesSocial Network(ing) Sites (SNS)
Boyd and Ellison: Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship
This factual article offers a birds-eye-view on social networking sites with a focus on their history. This article is important to read when studying SNS because it is a definitive article that provides the readers with facts and definitions. Popular interest in SNSs comes from the fact that they enable users to make their existing social networks visible they are not designed (primarily) as systems to meet new people. The article expands upon and focuses on previous research of SNSs including:
Definition of SNS according to Boyd and Ellison
Web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connections, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. (pg. 211)Brief History of Social Media
Below is a video clip that shows the features of the new Google+ and its possibility of taking over "boring" Facebook.
Below is a video parody of the evolution of social media
Networks vs Networking
Boyd and Ellison imply that these are used differently therefore they are different.Below is a short video clip on social network(ing) in simplistic terms!
Niedzviecki- Why No One Came to My Party and Other Semi-Transparent Conclusions
Here is a video showcasing the dangers of the peep phenomenon...Week 4: 9/14
Participatory Culture
Participatory Culture
Shifting relationships between producers and consumers
Participatory Culture (Anderson):
The Long Tail:
Scarcity Vs. Abundance:
Crowdsourcing (Brabham):
Producer vs. Consumer:
Point being, in participatory culture the roles of the consumer and the producer start to blur. The benefit of participatory culture is that if offers people entrepreneurship and the advancement of getting a step ahead The biggest benefit of crowdsourcing is that the consumer can come up with different solutions and the idea is more democratic.
Keen:
Moore's Law:
Conclusion:
Lecture Prezi: http://prezi.com/cuzokbirctlm/participatory-cultures/
Week 3: 9/7
Convergence Culture
I. Media Convergence
As defined by Jenkins (2007), media convergence represents a number of technological, industrial, cultural & social changes that encompass:
An easier way to remember it is as being the "collision" of:
Convergence was also a central part of the "second wave" of new media previously discussed by Gorman & McLean (2009). There are several different types of convergence, but most types of convergence are dependent on technological convergence (see below).
A. Technological Convergence
According to Jenkins, "old media never die" (p. 13) - the delivery technologies might, but "media" live on in ever-changing forms while being associated with different "protocols" ("social practices"). Music is music whether it comes through a vinyl record, 8-track, cassette tape or DVD. "Music" - the medium - doesn't change; the delivery technologies does. Same with film, TV, etc. But now we have a situation where all of these media are able to be delivered through a single delivery technology (e.g., laptops are no longer just for word processing; cellphones are no longer just for making calls). Yet competing delivery technologies still exist and that enable different protocols/social practices. In other words:
"Cinema did not kill theater. Television did not kill radio. Each old medium was forced to coexist with the emerging media. That’s why convergence seems more plausible as a way of understanding the past several decades of media change than the old digital revolution paradigm had. Old media are not being displaced. Rather, their functions and status are shifted by the introduction of new technologies." (Jenkins, 2006, p. 14).
B. Media Industry Convergence / Economic Convergence
Simply put, prior to media industry/economic convergence, “Companies that published newspapers, magazines, and books did very else; their involvement with other media was slight” (Itheil de Sola Pool, cited in Jenkins, p. 10). Like technologies that were previously distinct "delivery systems," media companies also tended to retain property interests in different "media" formats. TV networks were invested in TV, film studios only made films. Things are changing now to keep up with a shifting media environment. Media industry convergence is defined by "cross-media ownership" whereby media companies have expanded into new media industries so that no single media company only owns "one type" of media format.
New patterns of cross-media ownership exploit the possibilities of convergence. The consolidation of media companies into "the Big 6" have created an oligopolistic media industry whereby a single company owns film studios, TV networks & stations, Internet properties (e.g., websites, web companies), radio stations, etc.
C. Global Convergence
Global convergence is similar to to “network society”, and can be defined as the ability to co-produce and participate in global cultural products (e.g., the Numa Numa video). The result of global convergence is the cultural hybridity that results from the international circulation of media content → this makes for (supposedly) richer, more diverse / interesting media content.
D. Cultural Convergence
Technological, economic and global convergence have given way to a new type of cultural participation that Jenkins defines as “DIY (do-it-yourself) Participatory Culture;" i.e., a new participatory "folk" culture that gives average people the tools to archive, annotate, appropriate and recirculate content. Again, this is both a product of technological and media convergence as it partially contributes to technological, economic and global convergence (i.e., the "chicken or the egg?")
According to Jenkins and Ramos (2010), cultural convergence fosters "transmedia storytelling," or the extension of storytelling across multiple media formats. Transmedia storytelling is not the same as franchsing or synergies; rather, it involves the creative content production by fans (e.g., fan fiction, UGC videos, fan websites, etc.). For example, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is not just a short film; it's a narrative in which fans had a hand in extending the life of the story through the organic or "folk" creation of fan videos, fan sites and positive "buzz" about the film's pre-release. For example, this fan video parodying Dr. Horrible is one example of the way fans engaged with the film, signifying the hybridity of folk-mainstream cultural production central to cultural convergence:
In participatory DIY cultures, consumers seek out info from various sources, interact with others who share the same interests, produce their own experience of a product and contribute to the reshaping of American culture. As a result, these fans (who were once on the margins or considered part of a sub-culture/counter-culture) are moving into the center of media production and consumption and by effect, are reshaping culture.
Additional characteristics of participatory culture:
Conclusion/Wrap-Up:
Whether "convergence" truly indicates a "paradigm shift" is still up for debate but what's important to remember, as Jenkins does, is that convergence is a process - not an end-point! While it is changing the way people consume, produce and interact with media (as well as the way traditional media producers produce and interact with consumers & audiences!), nothing is set in stone and things continuously evolve. "Old" media still exists, it just comes via new delivery technologies.
It's also important to note that convergence isn't always or inherently "participatory" - take, for example, the new Gorrillaz album "The Fall" which was made entirely on an iPad with the following apps:
Speak It! Text to Speech / SoundyThingie / Mugician / Sylo Synthesiser, Sylo Synthesiser Pro / Synth / FunkBox Drum Machine / gliss / AmpliTube for iPad / XENON Groove Synthesizer / KORG iELECTRIBE / bs-16i / Mellotronics M3000 for iPad / Cleartune – Chromatic Tuner / iORGEL HD / olsynth / StudioMini XL Recording Studio / Bassline / Harmonizer / Dub Siren Pro / Moog Filtatron
The album was made by the band alone (i.e., not with the help of 'fans' or everyday 'folk) but the "instruments" used to produce the music were by no means traditional or "analog" guitars, piano, drums, etc.
Week 2: 8/31
Introduction to Social Media & Key Concepts
I. The Rise of New Media
This week discusses the "Rise of New Media" (Gorman & McLean, 2009) as a contemporary transformation in technologies and social practices embodied by "Old Media" (often referred to as "traditional," "mainstream," "commercial" or "mass" media). According to Gorman & McLean, new media technologies emerged in "two waves:"However, "new" media isn't just about technologies but social practices, or the way technological advances impact how these technologies are used. Examples of the way "new" media has changed social practices include:
Key distinctions between "old" and "new" media can be summarized in this chart (although there are certainly more differences - feel free to build on the list!):
& mass consumption
"the rise of mass self-communication" (Castells)
II. Mass Society vs. Network Society
Citing the theorist Manuell Castells, Gorman & McLean (2009) state that new media technologies and emerging social practices have fundamentally altered the social structure of contemporary society. According to Castells, we now live in a networked society, which is distinct from mass society. In a network society, key structures & activities are now organized around electronic "horizontal" information networks. Through "self-directed mass communication," individuals initiate communication that bypasses traditional modes of disseminating information (i.e., the mass media) and have the potential to reach everyone, everywhere (i.e., the 'masses').
M. Wesch's presentation to the Library of Congress about YouTube serves as a good example of "network society." Internet users are now able to produce their own creative content and exchange these creations and conversations seamlessly with others across the globe - transcending time and space.
III. Social Media
A. Definition
Social media are an example of "new media for mass conversation" that emerged from the shift in media/digital technologies. We defined social media as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content (UGC).”
Social media therefore merge 1) user-generated content and 2) Web 2.0.
1). User-generated content (UGC) describes “the various forms of media content that are publicly available and created by end-users” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). User-generated content must
meet three criteria, as defined by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2007):
2). Web 2.0 constitutes the ideological & technical foundation of social media and has been defined as “a platform whereby content and applications are no longer created and published by
individuals, but instead are continuously modified by all users in a participatory and collaborative fashion” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, p. 61). Web 2.0 is characterized by:
The distinctions between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 can be best expressed by this image:
And another great M. Wesch video explaining (visually) some of the Web 1.0 / 2.0 differences:
B. Types of Social Media
There are 6 types of Social Media (Kaplan & Hanelein, 2010):
1. Collaborative Communities
2. Blogs
3. Content Communities
4. Social Networking Sites (SNS)
5. Virtual Game Worlds
6. Virtual Social Worlds
III. Technological Determinism
A lot has changed or evolved in the past 20 years with the advancement of new digital technologies - our media and communication systems are changing, how we socialize and interact is changing and other organizational structures are changing. Some scholars believe the "paradigm shift" to a networked society that enables global networked communication is fundamentally transforming democratic processes, access to information, cultural production and social organization. This all begs the question: Did technology determine these changes?
The concept of technological determinism assumes that technology alone determines social organization, social practice and behavior. It is the belief that technology will generate social change based upon the implicit values, virtues or vices possessed by that technology” (Miller, 2010, p. 3) and suggests "that new technologies set the conditions for social change and progress [or decline]” (R. Williams cited in Miller, p. 3)
The following video is a fantastic description of technological determinsm and refutes the common claim that new media technologies and platforms (like Web 2.0, social media) will fundamentally change the world:
These assumptions about technology are problematic because:
Examples of technological determinism in popular culture (or, just Google "digital media revolution"!):
INSTEAD, it is more useful to think about "what technology does" in terms of “Affordances,” "Enablements" and "Limitations"- in other words, what do the architectures of participation or features of a particular technology afford, enable or limit us to do?
While certain features may "enable" or "limit" certain uses, this is not a deterministic argument because it does not suggest that the site's architecture determines how users will actually use the technology. There are always two possibilities to any new media technology:
For example: No one anticipated gamers would use Second Life for the purpose of stalking or sexual violence; no one anticipated Twitter would be used to organize flash-mob robberies.
IV. Conclusion/Wrap-up:
Social Media were "born" out of innovations in digital media technologies but the social practices that emerge from these technologies are not necessarily determined by something inherent to the technology itself. Instead, we might argue that social media afford / enable new forms of social organization and communication practices that are transforming previous social and organizational practices. As Miller (2010, p. 3) rightly notes: “It is almost inevitable that any significant new technology will be predicted to transform society, or at least to embody the potential to transform society.” While it is possible to argue that "new media" has transformed the social structure of contemporary society from "mass society" to a global "network society," we must be careful in how much power or claims to "social progress" or "social degradation" we assign to this shift. We should be wary of theorists like Castells who claim the "network society" is fundamentally "more democratic" than previous formations (e.g., mass society). While new media certainly affords new opportunities for cultural production outside the hands of top-down culture industries (e.g., convergence culture), we should be wary about any claim promoting "fundamental change," "social decline" or "progress" as changes determined or solely caused by some inherent vice, virtue or quality of any single technology.
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Please fill your name in an empty spot below. You are only required to complete ONE Wikinotes but may sign up for more (no more than 2). If signed up for 2, I will average your grades for the final Wikinotes grade. Do NOT erase the name of another student because you want their spot - I will track it & give you a zero for the assignment!Week 4: Participatory Culture
1)Caitlin Gallagher
2)Jeremy Brandt-Vorel
3) Serena D'Angelo
Week 5: Social Networking
1)Callista Small
2)Brittany Bradsher
3)Christy Cade
Week 6: Social Media & Identity
1)Ashley Page
2)Rachel Patania
3) Esther Remington
4)Brian Koonce
Week 7: Virtual Geographies
1)Matt King
2) Daniel Blakely
3)Joseph Suarez
4)Sarah Call
Week 10: Flashmobs & Social Organization
1) Cole Feldman
2)Christy Cade
3)Jeff Benson
4)Sarah Call
Week 11: Privacy
1)Joseph Suarez
2)Bryce Evason
Week 12: Immaterial Labor
1) Ashleigh Chapman-Jones
2)Luke Saunders
3)Brandon Garland
4)
Week 13: Surveillance & Social Control
1)
2) Krystal Cox
3)**Ashleigh Chapman-Jones
4)